Broken Seal
by sabersoul13
Summary: Shortly after becoming Kazekage, Gaara's seal breaks and Shukaku is released, but not in the way one might expect.
1. Chapter 1

Authors notes:

I've had this idea for a little while and so i decided to actually start writing it. I'm not too sure how good this will turn out or if its even worth writing but for now ill just keep going with it. This first chapter isn't too long and is mostly just here to set the basic scene of whats to come, hopefully ill have a longer and more entertaining chapter next time.

Anyway, i hope you enjoy and i wouldn't mind some feedback on what people think about my story, negative criticism is welcomed as i think it will help me improve.

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><p>The early morning sun slowly rose above the horizon, and lit the desert up in a shower of light-fuelled heat. Gaara was one of the few people who was always awake this early to see the sunrise from Sunagakure, but that was not by his choice. Even after changing his ways, after being defeated at the hands of Naruto Uzumaki, after keeping control of the monster held inside him, he still couldn't sleep.<p>

He would have sighed in frustration if he didn't still have trouble showing any form of emotion; the years of being a psychotic, murderous child did have its effects after all. He looked out over the village of Sunagakure, it had been a long time since he had killed anyone for fun and the people were starting to see him as their protector more than a monster; the proof of this was still held in his hands.

The hat of the Kazekage was still resting in his hands, he would have held the robes as well but he found he didn't much care for them. His village had elected him as their new Kazekage, their leader and protector. They had put their trust in him despite his past and for that, he would be forever grateful. He would prove that he deserved the honour that they had bestowed upon him, he would protect them with his life if need be.

Right now however, he had a much more dangerous foe to defeat. An enemy to all five kage of the elemental nations, and one who had yet to be truly conquered by anyone who faced it; paperwork.

Gaara actually did sigh in frustration this time. He honestly contemplated going back to his murderous ways just so he didn't have to deal with the massive stacks of paperwork that littered his office. He also considered visiting Naruto, who he saw as his first and best friend, but the blonde haired ball of energy was currently off on a training trip for a couple of years, a training trip that's location was confidential.

He could have gone and rampaged through Konohagakure until the Hokage gave him the location, and without Naruto there to stop him this time he was confident that he could at least do some damage this time. He would say that he could destroy the hidden leaf village, but since their current Hokage was Tsunade of the sannin, well, he figured he wouldn't get too far after a punch from her.

He looked once more over the village below him; his view from atop the Kazekage tower was truly a remarkable sight. He turned to walk away only to fall to his knees in pain. He put his hand on the back of his neck, where the seal that bound the Ichibi was. The seal burned and throbbed with agonising results, bringing with it an uncontrollable influx of chakra from within the seal itself. Gaara could feel the chakra burning its way through his coils, tearing his body apart slowly, and more importantly, he could feel the seal breaking.

With the last of his strength, Gaara let loose a pained scream that sounded more like an animalistic howl, and created a massive sphere of sand around himself. With his final conscious moment, he flexed his hand, imploding the sphere onto himself. _'I will not let you get out' _he thought before everything went black.

Temari and Kankuro were waiting in Gaara's new office. They themselves couldn't believe that he had been elected as the new Kazekage, but after some thought, they decided that he really was the best choice. He was easily the most powerful shinobi in the hidden sand, and after his defeat by that Naruto kid, he had changed a lot.

Now he was kinder, not that you could tell by his emotionless expression, and he didn't kill people for fun anymore. He was also much happier despite his inability to show that he was; Temari found it upsetting that her little brother couldn't even smile.

Temari looked over to her other younger brother Kankuro, who was tinkering with one of his puppets, and shook her head in shame. He couldn't even wait to congratulate their little brother; he just had to work on those mechanical death traps as if his life depended on them. Technically, they did, but Temari didn't see that as a proper excuse when it came to congratulating their new Kazekage.

It didn't take long before both siblings were hit with a literal explosion of chakra; chakra of a demonic nature that they knew could only come from one thing. Without a second thought both siblings were up and heading for the roof of the tower, praying that their little brother hadn't suddenly returned to his old ways.

They reached the roof just in time to hear Gaara scream in agony, before forming a large sphere of sand around himself. Temari looked at Kankuro with a confused expression of which he returned. They looked back and watched in horror as the sphere imploded on the youngest of the sand siblings.

Seconds went by but to Temari and Kankuro it felt like hours. They stood frozen in shock from what they had witnessed, had their little brother really just killed himself, and if so, why. Once they got back to their senses, they realised something horrifying. The sand sphere was still standing, it no longer resembled a sphere, but it was still there.

Temari knew that if that implosion had killed Gaara, then his sand would have crumbled to the ground without his control; it was the same thing that happened when he fell asle…. _'Oh Kami' _she cursed mentally; Gaara wasn't the one maintaining the sand, it was 'it'.

At that moment the sand exploded outwards, knocking Kankuro off his feet; Temari managed to pull out her large battle fan just in time to shield herself but the force of the blast still forced her a few feet back. She could feel the demonic chakra pouring out of her brother, fusing with the sand around him. She looked back to where the sand sphere once was and gasped.

Lying on the ground in a bloody heap of torn clothes and mangled bones, was Gaara. He was still alive, and still in one piece, but Temari could tell that in his condition he would certainly die, with or without medical attention. Her assumptions were backed up when Gaara once again started to writhe in pain as the demonic chakra tore through and out of his body. The chakra collected in such vast amounts that it could clearly be seen as a red cloud that enveloped Gaara's body.

"Temari, what the hell is going on?" shouted Kankuro.

"I think the seal is breaking" she replied hesitantly.

Kankuro's eyes widened in fear, "You mean…" he tried to ask but was interrupted by another explosion of chakra.

The raw power and presence of such evil chakra forced Temari and Kankuro to their knees, it's disgusting aura depriving them of breath. Upon returning their gaze back to Gaara, they were greeted by something that chilled them to the bone.

Standing next to their brothers mangled body was a boy in his mid to late teens; he had dark grey and black hair that spiked wildly in whatever way it pleased and was only covered by a pair of baggy black pants, his visible skin was covered in black curse seal markings. His eyes were what scared them though; pure black eyes with a yellow iris in the shape of a four-pointed star with four small dots around it.

"Shukaku" muttered Temari as she readied her battle fan.

The boy turned to them and flashed them a toothy grin before looking back down to Gaara's body. Temari couldn't believe it; after all this time, after all the trouble they had been through, after everything Gaara had done to better himself, and this is how it was going to end. Shukaku, the Ichibi, breaking his prison and being set free.

She quickly became aware of her brother readying his puppets and the numerous shinobi of Sunagakure that had swarmed to the tower after feeling the chakra. Everyone was preparing for a battle, a war if need be; they were not about to let this monster get away. They would not let it be free.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors notes:

Ok well here's the second chapter. I made it a bit longer but I'm pretty much gunna stick with 3-4 pages per chapter maybe the occasional 5 if i have the inspiration. I'm not too sure how regular my updates will be since i'm writing other original material of my own but hopefully the chapters wont be too far apart.

please don't forget to review your thoughts on my story, i would love to know what you think and any form of criticism is still appreciated.

I don't own Naruto or any of the characters related to it, i do however reserve all rights of my potential OC's.

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><p>The tension in the area could probably be carved with a kunai if someone tried; nearly every shinobi from the hidden sand surrounded and stared down what seemed to be the human form of Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki. Temari was the closest to the strange boy, also the one most prepared to attack if the opportunity showed itself.<p>

Shukaku looked around at the few hundred ninja that surrounded him with their weapons ready and gave a nonchalant shrug, as if he couldn't care any less about them. He gazed at Temari and then at Kankuro, before looking back down at Gaara. The pale, red haired boy was still alive by some miracle; anyone else would have been long since dead after having a tailed beast break out of them.

Everyone watched in shock as Gaara raised his obviously broken right hand, along with it a small pillar of sand that suddenly shot forward and speared through Shukaku's midsection. The silence was broken by a wheezing chuckle coming from the now freed tailed beast. Shukaku broke out into full-blown laughter, during which he dispersed Gaara's sand spear with a wave of his hand.

It didn't take him long to stop laughing, and once he did, he walked straight up to Temari. He looked down at her and smiled yet again.

"You should really get him to a hospital," he said calmly, "I'm not too sure how much longer he'll last in that condition," he added.

Temari just stared at him. Wasn't this supposed to be Shukaku, the feared one tailed beast, the blood thirsty monster that tormented and manipulated her little brother into killing people for the sake of his existence. Yet here he was in human form (something she still couldn't quite wrap her head around) not killing everyone in sight.

Shukaku's expression went from cheerful and smiling, to serious and somewhat concerned. "I wasn't joking you know, he really needs a hospital" he said with a hint of urgency. When no one moved he began to shout, "Seriously people, he needs a hospital, hop to it," he ordered them.

Once again, no one moved. Everyone remained frozen in shock, only their reasons were different than they were earlier. The current reason for their shocked state was the fact that they were being ordered by a tailed beast; more importantly, a tailed beast was ordering them to save their leader, something that they should have been doing without being ordered.

Shukaku gave the gathered shinobi a dumbstruck expression, "You people are useless, I'm outa here," he shouted before exploding into a small tornado of sand, which quickly dispersed, revealing that he had disappeared.

Now with the tailed beast no longer an immediate threat, every ninja who knew medical jutsu rushed forward, intending to save their Kazekage.

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><p>Temari was sitting quietly outside the operating room that Gaara had been taken into as soon as he arrived at the hospital, which was 3 hours ago. Without Shukaku sealed within him, he didn't have an infinite source of demonic chakra that would heal him. Most of the doctors that had heard of what happened said that it was a miracle he was even alive.<p>

Kankuro hadn't stayed long; shortly after Gaara was taken into surgery a group of shinobi formed a search group, they intended to hunt down and recapture Shukaku, Kankuro had gone with them. Temari didn't understand why they would do something so stupid. Shukaku was a tailed beast, even if he was weakest of the nine, he would still paint the desert with their blood. What were they even going to do with him if they did manage to catch him?

She knew they wouldn't re-seal him in Gaara; the council would see to that. She doubted they would just seal him into some little kid from the village; no one would let that go down without a major riot, a riot of which she would be the orchestrator. No matter how she looked at it, Temari could only see one thing happening if they caught Shukaku; he would be sealed back into the teakettle or into someone who the council could control, someone who the village did not require and was easily disposed of if need be.

Temari was brought out of her musings by the doors of the emergency room opening, the hospitals head doctor walking out with his head held low. She instantly assumed the worst had happened and could already feel her eyes watering.

"So how is he?" she asked hesitantly, she tried to keep her voice strong but it wasn't helping.

The doctor sighed, "He's alright for now. We managed to stabilise him and he should recover, but he'll never be a ninja after this," he explained with a solemn tone.

Temari's breath caught in her throat, "Is there anything you can do?" she pleaded softly.

"I'm afraid not. From what we can tell, when Gaara crushed himself, he was really trying to destroy his body; we assume he was trying to take Shukaku with him, a truly respectable act, but the damage he caused is irreversible" the doctor informed her.

He held up a clipboard he was holding and began reading from it. "Gaara suffered chakra burns the likes we have never seen before, almost every bone in his body was shattered, most of his internal organs have been ruptured or turned to mush, and his chakra coils have been torn to shreds. Even if we could heal his physical injuries, he would never use chakra again, we aren't even sure if he will walk again at this rate but only time will really tell," he said.

"Can I see him?" she asked. All hints of warmth and hope were clearly vacant from her voice.

"Yes you can, but we had to put him in an induced coma," he answered.

Temari nodded in understanding; with the kind of injuries Gaara had, she really couldn't blame them for inducing a coma. She walked down the hallway, counting down the room numbers until she got to the one Gaara was in. They had moved him to one of the more secure rooms of the hospital, within the 'off limits' wing of the building.

Eventually, despite walking as slow as she could, Temari reached Gaara's room, number 219. She hesitated to open the door but managed to force back her emotions, and walked in. She felt like crying when she finally got a look at her little brother, wrapped up in more bandages than she had ever seen in one place, and hooked up to almost every machine possible. All that was visible of Gaara was his dark auburn hair, but that only reminded her of all the blood that had gone everywhere while moving him to the hospital.

It didn't take her long to notice that his right arm was missing below the elbow, something that the doctor had neglected to mention in his list of injuries. After realising the true results of what had happened, Temari really did start to cry. If you had of asked her 2 years ago whether she would cry over her little brother, she would have called you crazy; yet here she was, crying her eyes out, all because Gaara's dreams were destroyed in one single day.

After a few minutes, Temari sat down on the chair next to Gaara's bed. She placed her battle fan up against the wall next to her; she would sit here and guard her little brother until he was healed enough to return to his duties as Kazekage, and then continue to guard him even then. A few hours later and Temari had fallen asleep with her head resting on her arms, which were folded on the side of Gaara's bed.

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><p>When Temari woke up it was still dark outside. She looked around the room and saw that it had been undisturbed while she was asleep; then she turned to look at Gaara. He was still lying there lifeless, except for the slight rise and fall of his chest, but even that was being regulated by one of the machines he was hooked up to.<p>

She stood up and began fixing her hair; somehow, during her short sleep one of the hair ties that kept her hair in her trademark four spikey ponytails, had fallen out. While she was retying the hair band, she heard the door open behind her, spinning around quickly, pulling a kunai out of one of her sleeves; she got ready to kill whoever it was. Not once did the possibility of her overreacting cross her mind.

Once she had finished spinning around and readying her weapon, she realised it was Kankuro who had entered the room. Kankuro for his part was a little concerned by how jumpy his sister had become, but after a quick glance towards the pile of bandages on the hospital bed, he really couldn't blame her.

"Did you find anything?" Temari asked quickly. She still didn't like the idea of capturing Shukaku again, but if it got her a chance to kick the thing in the face then she was all for it.

Kankuro's shoulder dropped at that question. "No, we couldn't find anything, literally. We probably should have considered how stupid it was to try hunt something made out of sand, in the middle of a desert," he said as his mouth twisted into a somehow ashamed smile; combined with his war paint and it made for one amusing sight.

"Did you hear about Gaara's injuries?"

"Yeah, I still can't believe he's alive after that; guess little bro was much tougher than we gave him credit for, huh"

Temari smiled sadly. Leave to Kankuro to be the clown even in a situation like this. "It won't matter much anyway; his injuries are too severe, he'll never be a ninja again," she added solemnly.

"The council is already trying to elect a new Kazekage; they believe the Kazekage can't be some crippled boy who couldn't stand up to a genin" Kankuro told her.

"They can't!" she exclaimed.

"They can, and they are" he replied, "Listen Temari, unless by some miracle Gaara returns to full strength, then the council will elect a new Kazekage, and if that new kazekage isn't a supporter of our current one, well now would be the best time to remove Gaara from the picture" he explained.

"Well, I can honestly say I've never been referred to as a miracle before, but I'll take the compliment anyway," stated a voice from behind them.

Both older siblings turned around to see whom it was, only to be swatted to the side by a wall of sand. From one of the rooms shadowed corners walked Shukaku, in all his malevolent glory. He was still only garbed in the baggy black pants he had when he first appeared, and his skin was still littered by the black curse seal markings. Temari managed to come to her senses first and quickly put herself between Gaara and Shukaku.

She stared dead into the black and yellow eyes of the one-tailed beast and could practically feel the madness flowing off the psychotic creature. His face twisted into a mad grin as he stared straight back at her. For a moment Temari was confused; wasn't she the equivalent to an ant to him, why wasn't he just ripping her apart and walking past her corpse like nothing had happened, had he suddenly lost his joy in killing.

That's when it hit her. Shukaku wasn't killing her, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't have to; he could more than likely feel her inner emotions devouring her from the inside, he wanted her to die emotionally, the sick bastard.

"I know exactly what you're thinking and I take offense!" he exclaimed in an over dramatized way.

Temari almost gave into her desire to punch him in the face, but she held back knowing that if she did she would lose, painfully. "What am I thinking then?" she snapped harshly.

"Well I don't know the specifics, but I do know it goes along the lines of me being heartless and waiting for you to die emotionally, both accusation, I might add, are false" He replied cheerfully.

Temari smirked, "You forgot that I called you psychotic," she said snidely.

Shukaku quirked his head to the side, much like a curious dog would. "I thought that was a compliment," he stated questioningly.

"It doesn't matter, you're not getting anywhere near Gaara, you've already destroyed his body I won't let you kill him too" she said angrily.

It was then that Temari noticed that Kankuro hadn't gotten up from the floor yet and glanced over at him. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw him cocooned in sand that was holding him down. She once again gave Shukaku a confused look. Why would he keep doing things that literally made no sense for a tailed beast to do? Was he actually insane?

"Why haven't you just crushed me yet, or at least move me out of your way like you did Kankuro?" she asked.

He took on a thinking pose with his right elbow rested in his left hand and his thumb and forefinger holding his chin, whilst also looking off into an empty corner of the room. "I'm not too sure actually, but I'm glad I didn't, I haven't had a good conversation in a while and you are so much different than how your mother described.

"My mother?" Temari asked shocked.

"Yes, your mother, now please get out of my way so I can honour my debt" he said calmly before enveloping her in sand and pinning her to the wall.

Shukaku walked up to Gaara and picked up the clipboard hanging on the end of his bed. After reading it he whistled in amazement, "You really did a number on yourself kid" he said as he started to gather extraordinary amounts of chakra.

He looked over to Temari, who was giving him her best death glare, and smiled. "Just to let you know, this is really going to hurt!" he exclaimed before placing his hands on Gaara's chest,

The last thing Temari and Kankuro saw before passing out, was Shukaku and Gaara being engulfed in golden chakra, and then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Notes:

Ok well here's the next chapter. This one is a bit longer than the first two but i still haven't settled on my standard chapter length, so far a chapter will be as long as it takes to get the idea have written. Also note that i don't have a clear idea of how long it will be between updates, i would like to update regularly but as it stands i just don't have a schedule.

Something else to note is the fact that this story is not supposed to be serious. Yes there will more than likely be moments of seriousness and bloodshed but most of the story will be a humorous roller coaster of of randoms things i come up with. If my previous chapters have given off the wrong impression of that im sorry, but if you have no issues with it then keep reading.

So far I've received good reviews for this story but i'm hoping for more, i would also like to know how many people are open to the idea of a potential relationship between Temari and Shukaku, please review your answers or send me a message; keep in mind that this would be my first ever attempt at writing anything close to a romance type story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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><p>Temari's eyes fluttered open slightly before squeezing shut tightly. At that moment, she declared that whoever had opened her window was going to get a very personal introduction to her fan, before she forced them to polish the large metal weapon. Yes, it was quite safe to say that Temari was not a morning person.<p>

She would have tried to stay asleep but even she knew that there must have been some reason that her window was open, whether that reason was important enough to wake her early was yet to be decided. Therefore, without much complaint she sat up in her bed, only to realise that she wasn't in her bed. She looked around and quickly noted that she wasn't in her room either, she was in a hospital room.

That's when all the memories of yesterday hit her like a ton of bricks. Shukaku, Gaara, the blinding golden chakra, it all came rushing back in an instant. She grabbed her head in pain from the influx of memories and swore to add yet another ass kicking to Shukaku's list for giving her a headache.

_'Wait, where's Gaara?' _she thought in a panic.

Within seconds, Temari was up and running out the door, she didn't even flinch when the needle stuck in her arm was ripped out. She raced through the halls of the hospital, trying desperately to find room 219. It didn't take her long to find it, and once she did, she burst through the door without any regard for anyone who might have been in there.

As soon as she got a look inside the room, she froze. Standing there, perfectly healthy, was Gaara. He was garbed in his Kazekage robes and even had the pointed hat atop his head. Temari sighed in relief; she had obviously passed out from heat stroke and imagined the whole thing, it would definitely explain why Shukaku was a teenage boy without a shirt on. She chuckled mentally to herself; leave it to her to imagine the fearsome and bloodthirsty Ichibi as some good-looking boy.

_'Damn my imagination' _she cursed mentally.

"Temari?" she was torn from her thoughts by Kankuro, who was lying on the hospital bed.

"Hey, what are you doing in the hospital?" she asked.

Gaara and kankuro shared a look before turning back to their older sister. "Do you remember yesterday Temari?" asked Gaara, despite his monotone way of speaking she could tell there was a hint of concern lacing his words.

"What do you mean, what happened?" she asked a bit more seriously than before.

Gaara gave her his best impression of a concerned look, while Kankuro gave her an extremely over exaggerated look of disbelief. Neither could comprehend how she could forget the events of yesterday, both secretly hoped that she hadn't suffered some form of memory loss; it was hard enough getting away with things as it was now, neither of the brothers needed their sister to be suspicious of what they may have done that she no longer remembered.

Kankuro shivered in fear of the potential chaos that could be born from his big sister losing even a days' worth of her memories. She was suspicious and controlling enough as it was, if she suspected any kind of foul play on his part; he shivered again, it was too much to consider.

Temari gave her brothers a questioning look. What could have happened yesterday that was so important, she knew it didn't have anything to do with the dream she had, something that was thankfully locked away in the deep regions of her mind. It would ruin her reputation if people found out that she imagined the Ichibi as an attractive teenager rather than a dangerous demon tanuki, especially when it was in a dream that her little brother tried to brutally kill himself.

"Temari, are you saying that you don't remember anything about this?" asked Gaara while pulling up the sleeve of his right arm. He pulled it up far enough to show the bandages wrapped around his elbow, where his arm just stopped, revealing it nothing but a stump of a limb.

Her breath caught in her throat and she could feel the slightly painful lump forming there too. Was her dream of yesterday's events real? Did Gaara really crush himself? Was Shukaku actually free? Did she really call the Ichibi no Tanuki a good-looking guy? She was finding it a little hard to come to terms with the amount of information she had to digest.

Eventually the reality of her situation finally kicked in and Temari had the decency to blush slightly from her own thoughts. She would have to bury that memory even deeper in her mind, somewhere so dark and misplaced that even a Yamanaka couldn't find it.

"Hey Temari, you do realise that your only wearing a hospital gown, right?" asked Kankuro with a stupid grin on his face.

Indeed Temari was only wearing a hospital gown, the kind that only covered the front. It took a matter of seconds for her to realise exactly what that meant; it meant that she had just unintentionally given quite a few people in the hospital quite a view. Now it was Temari's time to blush more than she ever had in her whole life, while praying to Kami that Shukaku would just come back and kill her already. She would never be able to live this kind of shame down, ever.

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><p>All three siblings sat around the table in their kitchen; even they had to admit that living in the Kazekage mansion was a comfortable life. However, no amount of comfort could ease their ever-growing discomfort. The events of yesterday still haunted their minds and raised more questions than what should be allowed from a single day's events.<p>

Not only had Shukaku broken his seal and escaped from within Gaara, but he also came back. From what Temari was told, both she and Kankuro were found unconscious in Gaara's room; she hadn't received any injuries but Kankuro had some fractured ribs. The shocking thing was that Gaara was found awake and healed, save for his arm, which remained amputated.

Despite his missing arm, Gaara was in perfect health. The doctors couldn't explain it at all; by their observations, Gaara should have remained comatose for at least a few months, even then, it should have been impossible for him to grow his chakra coils back. In the end, they couldn't find anything wrong with him and so allowed him out of the hospital.

The walk from the hospital had revealed a few things to the sand siblings. For one, everyone in the village was still severely shaken from the excessive chakra output over the last 30 or so hours, most of the villagers would send Gaara sympathetic glances when they saw him, a few would still shy away in fear. However, everyone had the same question on his or her minds; where was Shukaku?

"Are we gunna talk about what happened in that hospital room?" asked Kankuro. Oddly enough this was one of the few times he had forgone his trademark war paint and cat like suit, showing that he was actually a fairly normal looking guy with brown hair.

"Do we even know what happened in that room?" asked Temari.

"I'm not sure about the both of you, but I remember waking up and seeing Shukaku right before he disappeared," stated Gaara in his emotionless voice. "Is there anything you guys would care to tell me about my miraculous recovery?" he asked.

Temari and Kankuro gave each other a questioning glance; neither really wanted to say something that would sound utterly ridiculous but neither could really deny what they had seen either.

Temari sighed in frustration. "The last thing I saw before I passed out was you and Shukaku being engulfed in golden chakra, he said something about it hurting as well" she paused and looked at Gaara, "did it hurt?" she asked.

Gaara slowly shook his head in the negative, if anything he had never felt more powerful, though he had already begun to miss his arm. He gently grabbed onto the stump that remained of his arm; it would definitely take some getting used, but he would manage. The thought of having to do all the paperwork with only one arm did almost make him cry though.

"So basically, from what we know so far, Shukaku broke out of his seal, nearly killing you in the process" he said while pointing to Gaara, "Then he just up and vanishes, but not before coming back hours later to almost completely heal Gaara of his wounds. I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds like the most fucked up fairy-tale in history," exclaimed Kankuro.

"We don't even know if Shukaku was the one who healed Gaara," replied Temari.

"You do have to admit that it does seem to be the likely answer," said Gaara, "His demonic chakra was what healed me when he was sealed, and it would stand to reason that it could still heal me now" he explained.

"But why would he heal you, after everything he's done, why would he suddenly have a change of heart" retorted Temari.

"Well, he did say something about mother, and then he said something about a debt. Is it possible that he owed our mother for something?" questioned Kankuro.

Temari gave a cruel laugh in response, "Don't be stupid Kankuro, what would that monster possibly owe to our mother, better yet, how could our mother have anything to do with him prior to Gaara's birth" she answered snidely.

"Well sorry for thinking outside the box Temari but after everything that's happened over the last couple of days, I wouldn't be surprised if Shukaku just showed up expecting a place to crash for a few days" he snapped back at her.

During this argument, Gaara had been focusing on one thing and one thing only; making a replacement arm out of sand. So far, he had found it to be quite practical, using sand for an arm allowed him to change that particular limb into whatever he needed at the time. For instance, right now he contemplated creating a small hand puppet sized version of Shukaku's tanuki form. It didn't take him very long before he turned that contemplation into a reality.

Kankuro and Temari had been in the heat of an intense verbal battle when they noticed the small puppet sized Shukaku that extended from Gaara's arm. The argument had stopped dead in its tracks when Gaara started to make the small sand Shukaku dance on the kitchen table. The night hit a new level of weird when the youngest sand sibling created two more sand puppets that had striking resemblances to Temari and Kankuro, and made them all river dance.

Before a word could be uttered, both Kankuro and Temari had disappeared from the kitchen. Gaara didn't even notice their departure as he made all three sand puppets start swapping their heads around. For the first time in a very, very long time, Gaara smiled.

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><p>Temari gazed up at the stars from where she sat on the roof. The desert was always so calm at night, and after what she had just witnessed, it was safe to say that she really needed the calm. She almost giggled at the memory of Gaara playing around with his sand as he did, but then she remembered exactly what he was doing with it; she would have to get him checked for brain damage at some point.<p>

Her thoughts went back to the calm desert night. Although Temari had no problems with the scorching heat of day, she would always prefer the cold chill that accompanied the night; how the cool breeze would flow through her hair, not quite strong enough to disturb the sand but still just strong enough to make its presence known.

From one of her sleeves she pulled a small collapsible fan. It was of the few things the siblings had of their mothers; naturally, Temari had taken it since she used fans to help manipulate the wind but she had quickly learnt it was not meant for battle. It was too small to create any gusts of wind worth attacking with; at most, it could be used to create a single accurate blade of wind, which she learnt could cut through almost anything.

While it was folded, the fan had a striking resemblance to a decorative blade of sorts, and was just as sharp on the edges. Temari guessed that her mother kept this on her in case she went anywhere weapons were not allowed; no one would suspect that a small little fan could just as easily slit your throat. She gently grabbed the base of the fan, and with a swift movement of her hand snapped it open.

Although the folded blade-like form was fancy looking, nothing could compare to the intricate design it displayed when opened. Each metal spine that extended from the base caught the early moon light in such a way it glowed an eerie aqua. Stretched between each spine was what appeared to a high quality fabric that would tear with ease, luckily Temari knew that it was actually just extremely thin steel wire, woven in such a way that it was strong enough to block shuriken if need be.

It wasn't until tonight that she noticed what the design woven into the fabric wire actually was; up until now, she thought that it was just a bunch of patterned symbols, or perhaps a seal of some sorts, but the truth was not so innocent. Woven in the middle of the fan was a bright yellow circle, within that was a black four point star with four black dots around it. Outside the yellow circle extended a series of black markings over a sand coloured background.

Temari knew exactly what the design was now, but even in knowing, she just couldn't understand. Why would her mother have a fan with the design of Shukaku's eye on it? Did the Bijuu really have some form of connection with her? Just how much did she truly know about the woman that she had been inspired by for so long?

"I have to say, that little fan you got there really does capture my evil eye"

Without even thinking, Temari whipped her hand out and sliced the fan through the air in a diagonal cleaving motion. She managed to turn just in time to see the blade of wind collide with the human form of Shukaku; the impact created a small cloud of sand and dust that obscured her vision, but she was confident that she had hit him.

The small vicious smile that had formed on her face quickly dropped when she heard the sound of clapping. Sure enough, once the dust settled, she saw a completely unharmed Shukaku standing exactly where he had been before; her attack hadn't even scratched him.

"I say, well played; perhaps next time you'll remember not to try harm the demon of wind country with a wind attack" he said calmly as he brushed dust off his shoulder.

"I'll give you points for effort though; very few people even have the guts to attack me outright, much like those few hundred shinobi from yesterday who were all frozen in fear just from seeing me" he added with a mad chuckle.

Temari channelled her chakra into the small fan; it hummed with power and went from an eerie glow, to being engulfed by a blue flame. She raised her arm up above her head and in one clean motion, brought it down in a clean slice. The blade of wind shot forward with so much energy that it was visible as a pale line moving through the air. She could see the small straight slice it was leaving in the rooftop as it hurtled towards Shukaku, with every foot it got closer her smile got wider.

As soon as it got within four feet of the demon tanuki, he reached forward, and caught it. Temari's eyes widened to the point of hilarity; how could he possibly catch an attack that strong, Bijuu or not it should not have been that easy. She watched as he pulled his arms outwards and dispersed the blade of wind as if it were a child's toy.

"Eh, I'll give ya 5 outa 10 for that one, 2 extra point for enthusiasm" he explained calmly with a smile on his face.

It didn't take Temari long to realise how utterly pointless it was to fight a tailed beast; even in human form he was probably powerful enough to level half the village for a laugh, in fact she wouldn't even put it past him to do so.

"What do you want?" she asked in a defeated tone.

"Giving up already are we? I thought you had more fight than that" he replied cheekily.

"Just tell me what you want already, it's not like I can defeat you anyway"

"What a terrible attitude to have. I would have thought you would at least learn something from that blonde haired moron, what was his name?" he asked.

"Naruto?" she replied.

"Yeah Naruto, that idiot; didn't you learn anything from him, or was Gaara the only one who got anything out of that pathetic attempt of an invasion?"

"Don't you dare talk about Gaara, not after what you've done to him!" she yelled.

"What I did _for_ him" he corrected her.

Temari felt her blood boil and was prepared to leap across the roof and stab him in the face, surely he couldn't just disperse that. How dare he even consider what he did to be _for _Gaara; the only thing that could even be counted as a good deed, would be if he actually were the one to heal Gaara's wounds.

That when Temari actually observed him and began noticing a few oddities. First and most important was that all the black curse seal markings had disappeared; without those to draw her attention, she noticed just how pale he really was, he looked almost sickly. The next thing she noticed was that his once bright yellow eyes were extremely dull and faded, add that to the fact that he looked like he was having trouble standing and he looked close to death.

This didn't pull on any heartstrings for Temari however; it only made her angrier. Knowing that he was able to swat away two of her more powerful attacks like flies, even in his current condition did not weigh well on her confidence.

"Are you feeling alright there?" she asked spitefully.

Shukaku just smiled widely and laughed. "Me? Oh I'm fine," he said, right before collapsing face first onto the ground.

Temari almost laughed, almost. For some reason she couldn't; she wanted to but she couldn't. It wasn't every day that you see one of the most powerful beings alive, just collapse in an almost dead state. Anyone else from the village would have jumped at such an opportunity, she herself should have been jumping at this opportunity, but she wasn't. All she had to do was walk over, and stab him until he was dead; but the thought of killing something so powerful while he was in such a sickly condition just didn't seem like good sport.

She sighed. It seemed that she would have to listen to Kankuro cheering about how he was right and she was wrong, even though Shukaku hadn't actually asked for a place to crash. She leant down and grabbed his hand before dragging him to the stairs; tonight was going to give her a headache.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors Notes:

Well here's the fourth chapter, i was extremely bored so i had a lot of time to finish it. So far I've still only received positive news on this story so ill keep writing it for now. i'd like to remind everyone again to review what you think about my story so far and point out anything I've messed up, i'll also gladly take any suggestions into consideration.

I'm still curious whether or not you guys want me to pair Temari and Shukaku together so id appreciate more response to that question, I've already set it up for that pairing but it shouldn't be too hard to go a different direction.

Disclaimer: i do not own Naruto, if i did Sakura would probably be dead.

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><p>So far, Shukaku had been having a great time. He had been freed, yelled at, attacked, been deprived of thanks for healing his previous jinchuuriki, and then passed out with a smile on his face. Yep, Shukaku was having a truly wonderful time.<p>

Unfortunately, all good things must end one way or another, for Shukaku that involved waking up, tied to a chair, with all three of the sand siblings looking expectantly at him as if he had the answer to life; the answer was 42, but he doubted they would listen to that. So instead, he put on his most cheerful smile, a truly terrifying thing to be seen, and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Do you guys mind if I crash here for a few days?"

The sound of Temari's head hitting the table and Kankuro dropping the spoon he was eating ice cream with, was all the reply he got. Looking over at Gaara he noticed that his former container wasn't even paying attention to him, instead he was playing with his sand, making a small tanuki version of himself dance around with a top hat and cane.

_'Ok first thing to do when I get the chance is kick his ass' _he swore mentally.

He looked over to Temari and noticed that she was shaking her head in denial and mumbling something he couldn't quite make out; Kankuro was just sitting there with the smuggest look on his face. Shukaku made it a point to hit him with something after he'd kicked Gaara's ass.

After a few minutes of general silence, Shukaku decided to interfere with Gaara's sand puppet show. By controlling his own sand he managed to create another small version of his tanuki form and made it walk across the table to join Gaara's; during the short walk a small chair made of sand formed in its hand and once it met Gaara's tanuki it smashed said chair over its head. Once again, the room was introduced to the sound of Temari's head hitting the table.

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><p><em>'I should have tried to kill him' <em>cursed Temari.

If she had of known that not one, but both of her brothers would react to this as a joke then she never would have dragged him down here for questioning. It had taken her a little while to actually come up with and excuse for why she was dragging a nearly dead looking Shukaku down the stairs. She had been forced to listen to Kankuro's gloating about being right for almost a full 3 minutes before punching him in the face.

Gaara she expect to be at least shocked or something, but no, he just disregarded Shukaku even existing; she was really starting to worry about her little brothers mental health. Even after the more non-serious moment was over, they still didn't really care; was she going insane or were her brothers complete idiots.

She looked over to see that Gaara and Shukaku were having a small-scale war with sand creations, some of which were quite impressive, and Kankuro off to the side making imaginary bets on who would be victorious. She would slam her head into the table again if she didn't fear it would leave a rather painful mark.

Without saying a word, Temari stood up and walked out of the room. The small-scale war stopped and all three remaining occupants of the room shared a confused look.

"Do either of you guys know what that was about?" asked Kankuro.

"I believe she is having a hard time coping with our reaction, or rather our lack of reaction, over Shukaku here," explained Gaara.

"Hmm, good point. Perhaps one of us should go talk to her about it," stated Shukaku.

Both Gaara and Kankuro gave him an expectant look to which he responded with a confused look. The next few minutes were filled with all three boys giving each other different looks expressing a wide array of messages ranging from and not limited to: angry, happy, confused, expectant, fearful, smug, cocky, and eventually pained.

"How about you talk to her," offered Kankuro.

"And why would I do that?" he asked.

"I think what my brother is trying to say, is that our sister has a tendency to react violently to this kind of news. Not to mention that if she found out that we had kept such information from her for this long; well she might not be so inclined to castrate you," explained Gaara as he shivered from the mental images he had given himself.

"So you guys are just gunna make me go into the dragons den ahead of you, is that it?" he asked accusingly.

Gaara and kankuro gave a nod of affirmation simultaneously, before going back to what they were doing before. Shukaku sliced through the ropes holding him to the chair, stood up, and stretched; he was still extremely weak but the small rest he had was better than nothing. He prayed that Temari wouldn't try to kill him again because he honestly wasn't sure he could go up against an angry teenage girl in his current condition.

After a few minutes of searching the house, he found Temari back on the roof sitting exactly where she had been before. He walked over and sat down next to her with his legs crossed; they stayed like that for a few moments before Temari decided to break the silence.

"They know something I don't, don't they?" she asked quietly.

"Yep" he answered.

"Is that the reason why they aren't attacking or trying to capture you?"

"Yep"

"You have 10 minutes, explain," she ordered.

"There's not much to say really, I guess I should start off with the fact that I didn't break out of the seal, at least not intentionally anyway" he began. "That seal was a real pain in the ass, remind me to kill whoever made the damn thing," he added with a sneer.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"That seal was the weakest seal that could possibly contain me, but that wasn't the issue; the issue was the berserker seal infused with it" he shivered slightly at the memory of it, "Every time I'm sealed, you people place a berserker seal over the top of everything. It makes me more agitated and forces more of my chakra to continuously flow into my vessel; Bijuu chakra, when not freely given by the respected Bijuu, causes bloodlust, insanity, and will force me to take control when my host is unconscious, in bad cases the host will suffer eventual breakdown of body tissue" he explained calmly.

"I've spent nearly the last century sealed under the same kind of circumstances; Because of that, you people have naturally assumed I'm a monster, much like the other Bijuu, and you wouldn't be too far off. I won't lie, I am insane, I was also very bloodthirsty back before I got captured, always trying to prove myself to be stronger than my siblings; but I'm hoping that now that I'm free I can be seen as something other than a monster"

"You said something about not breaking the seal, what did you mean?" asked Temari, surprisingly she had been listening intently to every word and was trying to believe what he said, so far it wasn't too difficult.

"Gaara's seal wasn't as strong as my previous ones. Your father wanted access to as much of my power as possible, and so he sealed me into Gaara during childbirth. With a weak and unstable seal infused with a berserker seal, combined with the interference of your mother's chakra network, it should have blown up and released me immediately. That's where I come in; due to the poor quality of seal, I was able to retain most of my consciousness while contained, thought I still went completely insane when I was released"

"Using what I had at my disposal, I held the seal together, waiting for a moment when it would be possible to release myself without killing Gaara. That moment was not what happened two days ago. The seal fell apart and I was forced out, I tried to cause the least amount of damage but my chakra is volatile by nature. Even I'm surprised Gaara survived that, which is why I went back and healed him as best I could"

"So that golden chakra was you healing him?" Temari interrupted.

"Yeah, I just wish I could have grown his arm back, but he seems to be coping just fine with it now. Lucky him, its gunna take me a couple of weeks just to regain my strength from that" he muttered the last part mostly to himself.

"So, assuming that all of this is true..."

"Which it is" he interrupted

Temari gave him a glare and continued. "Assuming this is true, how do my brothers already know all of this and how come I was the last to find out?" she asked.

"I told them in the hospital after you passed out; in fact you burst into the room shortly after I had finished asking them how to tell you"

Temari's eyes widened and she gave Shukaku a horrified look. "You mean you were in the room when…..And you saw my…..." she choked on her words and prayed it wasn't true.

"Oh yeah, I saw it all; best view I've had since I got outa the seal!" he exclaimed before bursting into hysterical laughter.

Temari for the second time in one day blushed red enough to give Hinata a run for her money, but that blush soon turned to anger as she punched Shukaku square in the face as hard as she could while screaming "Pervert" as loud as possible. Shukaku still didn't stop laughing, so she continued to punch him until her arm got tired. Once she was done Shukaku got up as if nothing had happened and led Temari back down to the kitchen where Gaara and Kankuro were.

The scene they walked into was not one either expected. Gaara had made a small army of raccoons out of sand that Kankuro was fighting off with a spoon. Temari turned to ask Shukaku if he knew what was going on, only to find he wasn't standing next to her anymore, instead, he was standing next to Kankuro helping her brother fight off the ever-growing swarm of racoons.

* * *

><p>All three siblings and one Bijuu sat quietly in the lounge room of the Kazekage mansion. Because boys never know when to quit, the kitchen had now become a victim of what was being called "The Racoon War". Now was not the time for games however, the sand siblings still had some questions that needed answering and Shukaku had recently decided that he needed ice cream.<p>

"So, I Believe you guys have some questions for me," said Shukaku, each word was said slowly between each mouthful of ice cream.

"Yes, we do. But before we ask any questions, is there anything you would like to add to your side of the story; or perhaps anything you would like to ask us first?" asked Gaara. He had stopped playing around with his sand, but everyone could see him twitch every now and then, just waiting for the chance to cause a little more chaos.

"Well you guys still haven't told me whether or not I can crash here for a little while" he replied.

The siblings all looked at each other; Gaara kept his emotionless expression, Kankuro gave a nod while smiling, and Temari was glaring at both of them. Out of all of them Gaara was the first one to say anything.

"I do not have a problem with you taking the couch," he said.

For the first time since the conversation started, Temari smiled. Who would have known Gaara would make such a responsible decision despite his most recent actions. She also realised that due to her being one of the owners of this place, she had a certain level of control over what Shukaku could or would have to do around the house. She chuckled darkly while forming a plan in her head.

"However" added Gaara.

Temari froze at that. Whatever her brother was about to say, she knew she wouldn't like it at all, unfortunately Gaara was still the Kazekage and she was under his control as a shinobi. She had to obey whatever orders he gave, no matter what; she was usually spared the demeaning orders because of her close relation with him, but right now, she guessed that it didn't really count for much when it came to Shukaku.

"You will have to be accompanied by one of us at all times while outside of the house. Although you don't seem hostile, it is difficult to just outright trust you; so until you have proven yourself to be trustworthy you will be required to have an escort wherever you go," stated Gaara. The way he said it, despite his monotone speech, told his siblings that this was an order as the Kazekage and not just him suggesting it.

Temari felt all hope of being able to torture Shukaku fall from her grasp. She inwardly cursed her brother for being too lenient and kind as a leader, but she couldn't get mad at him. After all, a kind and considerate leader is exactly what Sunagakure needed after the reign of their father. Unfortunately, for Temari, Gaara hadn't finished speaking.

"Now unless you enjoy sitting around in an office, doing nothing for hours on end, I would be a poor choice for keeping an eye on you and Kankuro is due to head to Konohagakure for an extended mission. This unfortunately leaves only Temari to keep an eye on you"

Time slowed down and Temari could almost see the pieces of her world shatter around her. If Gaara were still a murderous psychotic lunatic, she would have gladly made an attempt on his life for the stunt he was pulling right now. What the hell was her idiot of a brother thinking by sticking her with him for who knows how long?

"Gaara! You can't be serious, surely there is something more important for me to do," she yelled.

She hadn't expected Gaara to look at her with a dead serious expression and an accusing look in his eye. "More important than keeping an eye on one of the nine Bijuu? More important than making sure that he doesn't go on a killing spree through our village. Can you think of anything else more important than that?" he replied harshly.

Temari didn't answer; instead, she just sat back in defeat. Once he had seen that he had gotten his point across, Gaara turned back to Shukaku.

"My sister will be your escort from here on out, you will obey her rules and any command she gives you. You are not to leave the mansion without her and if she suspects that you are going to harm anyone within my village without good reason, then I give her permission to take you out by any means necessary" he finished.

Shukaku nearly had a heart attack as soon as he realised that his entire life for the foreseeable future would be controlled by a person who's mental stability was questionable even by his standards. Was his former jinchuuriki really cruel enough to practically hand his life over to her so easily? Did it count for nothing that he had been keeping him alive for 14 years, or that he had healed what should have been life-crippling wounds, did he really not get bonus points for doing any of that?

Temari couldn't have been happier. At first, she feared Gaara had lost the plot, what with the racoon war and Shukaku puppet dance, but now she could say that she liked this Gaara better. He had just given her complete control over Shukaku and the permission to kill him if he tried anything; she was practically holding his life in her hands. Most would have gone mad with that kind of power, she knew Gaara had once, but she would never let herself fall so low.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have 14 years of sleep to catch up on and I would very much like to begin now," said Gaara.

"Wait, didn't you have questions?" asked Shukaku.

"Questions can wait until tomorrow, after I've informed the council of what is happening," answered Gaara before walking up the stairs to his room.

Kankuro as if sensing the potential awkward situation, also left and went to his room. Only Temari and Shukaku were left in the lounge room and the awkwardness of their situation was slowly being realised. The evil grin that was plastered on Temari's face slowly grew into a mad smile, the kind of smile that Shukaku had long since learnt to always fear.

"You're not gunna make me do something sexual are you?" he asked fearfully. And just like that, the mad smile disappeared.

"NO!" she shouted while jumping away from him. "Why do you have to be a pervert?" she asked in a disgusted tone.

"Hey, I'm not the perverted one here, that'd be you. Don't think I haven't forgotten how you thought I was good looking," he answered hastily.

Temari froze, a look of complete horror formed on her face as she turned to look Shukaku dead in the eye. "How do you know that?" she whispered.

Shukaku's eyes widened to comical proportions and his jaw dropped in much the same fashion. "Wait, you actually thought I was good looking? I was just making a wild accusation, but this, this is so much better; how good looking do you think I am?" he asked.

Temari almost screamed in frustration. She didn't answer him, instead opting to stomp out of the room and up the stairs. Shukaku followed as she stormed up to her room with a cocky grin etched on his face.

"On a scale of one to ten, how hot do you think I am?" he asked before she slammed her door shut in his face. "I'll take that as an eight," he added with a chuckle.

Shukaku had to admit, things were definitely going his way. He was now free and had a place to stay for a while, not to mention a personal escort who thought he was attractive; yep, life was good.

Temari was already planning on how to make Shukaku suffer for as long as possible when she heard his footsteps lead away from her door. She was going to torture him in any way she possibly could, she was going to make him wish that he had held that seal together for much longer. A maniacal cackle escaped her mouth as she prepared for tomorrow.

Back down stairs, lounging on the couch, Shukaku felt a shiver of fear crawl up his spine, as if he had somehow just incurred the wrath of a teenage girl. He quickly shrugged it off and went to sleep; tomorrow he would get to see how the rest of the village would react to him.


	5. Chapter 5

Authors notes:

Here's the next chapter. I'm sorry if this one isn't as enjoyable as the others but hopefully i will make up for it in the next one. This chapter serves as a way to introduce the complete appearance of Shukaku and Temari, in case anyone is curious I've changed Temari's appearance to what she is depicted as in "The last Naruto movie" look it up if you don't know what it looks like.

I am still awaiting an inevitable negative review, but for now i'm happy with the few positive ones I've already gotten. I would also like to remind everyone that suggestions are greatly appreciated as i can only think of so many idea's to write by myself. Feel free to review or message any suggestions you have.

Disclaimer: i do not own Naruto, if i did there would be a lot more sealing techniques.

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><p>Temari was glad to wake up this time without the sun glaring in her eyes. She was also thankful to wake up in her own bed, after everything that had happened over the last few days she wasn't sure she could cope waking up in the hospital again. She got out of bed and got dressed, deciding to change her usual clothes slightly.<p>

Her new attire was much like the one she wore before. It consisted of a light purple, long sleeved blouse with a high collar underneath a grey top. A dark blue skirt that was split down the middle and showed her mid-thigh length black shorts, along with a pair of fingerless gloves and slightly heeled ninja sandals.

To go with her new look she also decided to change her hair. Instead of the usual four spikey ponytails, she opted for two longer spikey ponytails and a bang that fell to the right side of her face. After inspecting her new look in her full-length mirror, Temari figured it was time to start torturing Shukaku. A wicked grin crawled onto her features as she slowly walked down the stairs.

As soon as she got to the lounge room, her smile fell. Shukaku was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, something he seemed fond of doing, with a large stack of books next to him; books about the Ichibi no Tanuki. The one he was currently engaged in was one she had actually read once, needless to say, it did not put him in a good light. She could tell he was too absorbed in the book to notice her and the highly disturbed look in his once again bright yellow eyes put her off a bit.

She tried to walk quietly to the kitchen, hoping that one of her brothers had cleaned up the mess left over from "The Racoon War", but she was too distracted and her first step caused a smaller pile of books to collapse. Looking down she noticed that these books were also on the Ichibi; had he been reading all night?

"Oh, good morning, sorry I didn't notice you," said Shukaku, all traces of disturbance already gone from his eyes.

"That's ok" she replied simply. "Have you been reading all night?" she asked.

Shukaku's eyes widened slightly and he looked around the room and out the window, the sun had been up for close to 3 hours. He chuckled lightly and scratched his left shoulder; Temari assumed that was a nervous tick of sorts.

"Huh, I guess I have been reading all night" he admitted with a smile.

"So are these the books you've read?" she asked, gesturing to the pile she had just knocked over.

"Nah, those are the ones I have left to read," he answered.

Temari's eyes widened this time; he had read almost every book they had on the Ichibi, and she knew for a fact not even one of them painted a good picture about him. If what was said in those books was about her she would have already either broken down crying or destroyed the village, considering what kind of person she was, she assumed it would be destroying things.

Choosing to change the subject she quickly noticed that he once again had black rings around his eyes and his curse seal markings had returned, only now they were a dark blue in colour. While marvelling slightly at the intricacy of the markings, she realised something important.

"Ok well get up, today I'm taking you clothes shopping. I refuse to be seen walking around all the time with a shirtless guy" she said while pulling him to his feet and dragging him outside.

During the walk to the shopping district of the village, both Shukaku and Temari realised just how the village saw him. Temari already knew that the villagers had been made aware of the news about the Ichibi being allowed inside the village, Gaara had left a note telling her so; but even knowing couldn't prepare her for this kind of reaction.

As they walked down the streets, everyone they passed would shy away; people walking in their direction would turn down alleys even if it was a dead end, and parents would pull their children away protectively. It was just like when Gaara was younger, only the people were obviously more afraid of the real deal. It also didn't help that Shukaku was walking around shirtless, revealing the curse seal marks in all their glory.

Halfway through their walk something truly unexpected happened. Three shinobi leapt down from the rooftops and landed infront of them, each wore a length of material covering their lower face.

"Lady Temari, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to please move away from the Ichibi," stated the middle one, obviously the leader.

"What for?" she asked.

"It is for your own safety, lord Kazekage has declared that the Ichibi no Tanuki be captured and sealed immediately, by any means necessary" he explained while removing a kunai from a pouch on his hip.

"Nice try guys, but I know my brother better than anyone else and there's no way that he would order that. Now why don't you be good little lap dogs and tell me who really sent y…" she was interrupted when the man on her right threw a handful of shuriken directly at her.

She reached behind her for her fan only to realise that she had forgotten to grab it. She watched the small spinning bladed stars speed towards her and waited for the inevitable pain that would follow; just as the shuriken were within 3 feet of her the sand at her feet exploded upwards, creating a small shield of sand that caught the spinning blades mid-flight.

Temari looked over to Shukaku; the sand around him was swirling angrily at his feet and he glared at the three men before them. The killing intent flowing off him was enough to make any hardened shinobi think twice about staying around, and the chakra he was expelling was suffocating; she guessed that the whole village would be feeling this by now.

One of the three ninja ran for him with a kunai in hand, he didn't get far before a large clawed hand erupted from the ground and engulfed him. The remaining two men took a step back in fear; the kind of power Shukaku had just shown without moving so much as a muscle was beyond what they had expected. The one who had thrown the shuriken at Temari was the next to make an attempt at attacking, he got slightly closer before both his legs were engulfed by sand; the sand dragged him forward and held him upside down infront of Shukaku.

Shukaku gave the man a psychotic, toothy grin as the sand imploded on his two limbs. His screams echoed through the streets and the few remaining bystanders flinched from the sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh; blood sprayed in all direction and soaked into the sand before it threw the now broken man to the side like a ragdoll.

The crazed looking Shukaku turned his attention to the last remaining man; said man was shaking with fear and looked about ready to run for his life. He had never been told that the Ichibi would be this powerful while in human form, it was supposed to be weakened.

Temari was about to yell out for Shukaku to stop, but before she could utter a sound sand enveloped the third man completely and crushed him into a pile of blood and bone. She looked at him in complete shock, not so much for the fact that he had killed two of them but simply because he had done it with a smile on his face.

That's when she noticed the confused look on his face as he looked up at one of the rooftops. Turning to see what he was looking at, she was greeted by the sight of Gaara and about thirty shinobi standing on the edges of the buildings. Gaara's left arm was outstretched and his hand clenched to a fist; Temari's eyes widened in realisation. Gaara had been the one to crush the third man, not Shukaku.

She looked back at the Ichibi just in time to see him pull the first man from a pile of sand, aside from a broken arm the guy seemed to be fine. Now it was her turn to be confused; why hadn't he just killed them all. He certainly had the power to do so, even if he did say he was weakened, so why didn't he?

"Temari?" she turned again and saw that Gaara was now standing infront of her. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"What? Oh, yeah I'm fine, but why did you crush that guy?" she asked. It wasn't the first time she'd seen him do it but since he had started being a better person he had been far less likely to just kill anyone.

"He was trying to capture Shukaku against my orders, his actions made him a traitor and put you in harm's way, I refuse to let anyone who tries to harm my precious people go unpunished" he explained with conviction.

"But you could have captured him for questioning" she countered. She would have been more shocked that her emotionless little brother was showing an emotion as strong as conviction, but at the time there were more pressing matters.

"I didn't have to, thanks to Shukaku we now have two prisoners ready for interrogation; I will find out who ordered this and have them dealt the appropriate punishment for their crimes," he said in his trademark monotone voice. "I'll have someone clean this up, I believe you were taking Shukaku shopping for clothes, I'd prefer you leave this matter to me and continue with the duties I assigned you" he added before disappearing in a sand swirl.

"Did I just get told off by my little brother?" asked Temari. She was finding it a little difficult to cope with that particular titbit of information.

"Yes, well, I think I have an explanation for that," answered Shukaku.

"You do?" she asked.

"Yes, but it can wait for later; right now we have things to do" he replied.

They both hastily returned to walking, it wasn't too far until the shopping district from where they were. During the rest of the walk they realised that all the villagers they passed would now glare at Shukaku, as if he had done something terrible. Temari sent a worried glance at him only to see he was wearing a smile.

It didn't take them long before they reached the shopping district, which they noticed looked abandoned, and they entered the first clothing store they found. The shop wasn't very big but it did have a large variety of different clothing options; Temari instantly recognised it as the shop that she got her clothes.

"So, do you have a preference to what you want?" she asked him.

"Don't we have to wait for somebody to be here, if we don't pay isn't it called stealing?" he asked with his head quirked to the side.

Temari almost laughed at the way he would tilt his head in his confusion; it acted as a sort of reminder that he was actually a demon tanuki. She was also reminded of the fact that he had spent nearly the last century sealed away, meaning that he had no real knowledge of how modern society worked; she added this to her list of things that she could use to torture him.

"Considering that you just mutilated a guy's legs on the street, I doubt anyone is going to come and serve you. Just pick out what you want and I'll tell Gaara to cover the expenses," she answered.

She could see his hesitation at the situation but he went and grabbed a few items off the hangers anyway. After he had collected a small pile of clothes, he disappeared into a changing room. Temari sat and contemplated exactly how she was going to torture her temporary ward. _'Can I even call him my ward? So far he's been the one protecting me' _she asked herself mentally. In the end, she decided that it didn't matter and continued planning the humiliation of a Bijuu.

That's when she realised something so amazing, so obvious, that she almost wanted to punch herself for not noticing it sooner; they were in a clothes shop. She was stuck with the Ichibi no Tanuki, in a clothing store, with the ability to give said Bijuu commands that he had to follow. A wicked smile tugged at her lips and she could already imagine what kind of embarrassment she could cause the poor bastard; all she had to do was find anything in his size that was florescent pink.

With a mad cackle and crazy gleam in her eye, Temari ran around the store and collected as many pieces of bright pink clothing she could find. Once she had obtained what she was now declaring as Shukaku's permanent wardrobe selection for the foreseeable future, she went back to the change rooms. Her smile disappeared as soon as she realised that he had disappeared.

_'Where the hell is he?" _she screamed mentally.

If Gaara found out that she had lost sight of him in the middle of the village then he would stick her with the most demeaning missions he could find for months. The next ten minutes were filled with her running around in mild panic, trying desperately to find Shukaku. When she did finally find him, it was at the once place she didn't really expect.

He was in the middle of the shopping district, where a small park was, standing under one of the few trees at the edge of the grassy field. From what she could see, he seemed to watching something intently; when she turned to see what it was she saw a small group of children all kicking a small ball around.

Looking back at Shukaku, she noted that he was actually wearing clothes that he had picked out. His attire consisted of a different pair of baggy black pants that were held up by standard leather belt, a grey shirt underneath a long sleeve sand coloured coat, and a long length of red cloth tied around his head like a head band in such a way that it kept his hair spiked upwards. He had also chosen to wear a pair of thick heavy boots that added slightly to his height, instead of the standard ninja sandals.

She walked over and stood beside him, noticing that she had to look up to see his face. Temari guessed that with the boots added height he would have been around 5'11", compared to her height of 5'4" it allowed him to tower over her.

"Sorry about ditching you at the store, you seemed to be distracted with collecting a vast assortment of bright pink things," said Shukaku. "Honestly I never would have taken you for a girl who likes the colour pink," he added with a chuckle.

Temari punched him in the arm lightly and glared at him. "I'll have you know that I was collecting those things to add to your new wardrobe" she replied.

Shukaku's eyes widened in fear and slight shock, he turned to look at her with a horrified expression. "You were gunna make me wear pink!" he exclaimed before dropping to his knees and begging, "Please don't do that, I'll do anything but that, I'll even take back what I said about sexual favours" he pleaded.

"Pervert!" screamed Temari as she kicked him in the side of the head. "Why must men always turn everything into something sexual?" she asked harshly.

"You know, if we go by the rules of technicalities, I'm not human, therefore you can't categorise me with the rest of the men you know" stated Shukaku with a 'know it all' smile.

"Do you want to be kicked again?"

"No ma'am"

"Good, now get up, we're going back home" she declared.

Halfway through their walk back to the house, Temari remembered Gaara's strange behaviour and that Shukaku said that he had some form of explanation.

"Hey, weren't you going to tell me why Gaara has been acting strangely since the seal broke?" she questioned.

"Oh yeah, that" he replied. "It's quite simple really, in order to maintain the seal's stability I had to suppress Gaara's emotions as a child, now that the seal is gone and I'm no longer suppressing his emotions, it's likely that he will go through the emotional stages of childhood that he missed out on. So far he's gone through playful curiosity, and today we saw his stubborn, controlling toddler stage," he explained.

By this time, they had reached the Kazekage mansion and were standing outside the door.

"So you're saying that he will get worse?" she asked with a hint of worry.

"Oh god no, it should be a very subtle progression through very basic emotions. He might become needy and selfish, but other than that he should be fine," he explained. His explanation was further enforced by a battle cry and a loud crashing sound from inside the house. "Then again, I have been wrong before" he added.

The scene they walked into when they entered the house, could not be described with mere words. There was sand everywhere, various kitchen utensils and silverware were sticking out of the ground and walls, and furniture had been flipped and stacked to form barricades. They walked through the hallway and got to the kitchen, so far the damage just got worse with each room.

In the kitchen, they found Kankuro, who for some odd reason was still in Suna, crouched behind a barricade made of the kitchen table and chairs. He had a kunai holster strapped to his leg that was full of cutlery, and he was currently tinkering with his puppet crow, replacing all of the retractable blades with even more cutlery.

"Kankuro, what the hell is going on!" exclaimed Temari.

"No time to explain, take battle positions, we're gunna have to take his castle by force" replied Kankuro.

"Whose castle?" asked Shukaku curiously.

"The Racoon King, I've been fighting his minions for hours and I now have a chance to take him head on!" yelled the make up wearing boy before jumping over the barricade and running into the lounge room. A rather feminine scream echoed through the halls of the house shortly after his entry.

Shukaku shrugged nonchalantly and looked at Temari for an explanation, she just shook her head and started walking to the lounge room, Shukaku following closely behind.

"What do you think the chances are of the damage not being too severe?" she asked.

"Hmm, I think it should be fine, I mean what's the worst that could possibly…holy crap that's a lot of pillows!" he said with a dumbstruck expression.

Upon entering the lounge room, both Temari and Shukaku were given front row seat to what would later be called "The Battle of the Kitchen Lord and the Racoon King". In the centre of the room was a large pile of pillows, every single one from the mansion; atop the mountain of pillows sat Gaara, clad in a racoon onesie, tail and ears included. Around the 'castle' was an army of racoons much larger than that of the previous "Racoon War"; off to the side, Kankuro was crucified on a cross made of sand, as his puppet crow lay crumpled and defeated on the floor.

"I thought you said that it would be a subtle thing," said Temari.

"I also said that I have been wrong before, jeez, do not hear a word that I say" retorted Shukaku.

They were interrupted as every racoon made of sand turned its head to look at them, as Gaara got a mischievous glint in his eye. Suddenly the racoon army lunged at them; the last sound heard, aside from Gaara's mad laughing, was the uttering of "Oh fuck" from Temari.

* * *

><p>Message to purplepairy:<p>

i added the last part of this chapter because you enjoyed the racoon army, i put it right at the end just to make you suffer through the rest of the chapter to read it. i hope you enjoyed it and i look forward to any future reviews from you.


	6. Chapter 6

Authors Notes:

Here's the newest chapter, i hope you enjoy. I would also like to note the as far as i can tell my better chapters have been within the 3000-4000 word count, I'm not completely sure but this seems to be what i will be averaging per chapter.

I would also like to point out, in case anyone is curious, that in my story I've decided that the Bijuu will be quite a bit more powerful when not contained by seals. By that logic, although the Kyuubi is the most powerful of the nine, when sealed is only on par with the four tails. This also allows me to play around with the full strength capacity of Shukaku. As of right now I'm planning on making his full unsealed strength a lot more powerful than what is normally depicted.

To get a basic idea of how this system works, think of it like this. When all the Bijuu are sealed, they still follow the same strength hierarchy, however when one of them is unsealed, that individual Bijuu becomes the most powerful at the current time. therefore, assuming that Yagura has already been killed and Isobu released, that would put Shukaku as the second most powerful Bijuu at the current time.

I hope this makes sense since it will come into play in later chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if i did the sharingan wouldn't be so ridiculously over powered.

* * *

><p>Shukaku glared at the thing that dared call itself a mortal human. He had been on this world for over a millennia, and in that time he had gained a good idea of what a human was, easily angered non-tasty, fly sized abominations. It was from this knowledge that he was able to make a rather acceptable accusation that what stood before him was no mere mortal girl.<p>

He could remember long since extinct species of cannibalistic possums that would never stoop as low as Temari was at this very moment. Shukaku continued to glare intensely at the bright pink dog collar she held in her hand; never before had he felt the desire to slaughter a human this desperately, and never before had he been unable to do so.

Temari tapped her foot impatiently. It was bad enough that he had torn apart every article of clothing she had bought for him as soon as he found them, but now he was glaring at the dog collar as if he had the ability to set it ablaze with naught but his will. She didn't truly know the extent of a Bijuu's abilities but she was confident that telekinetic combustion was not in that list, especially when it was the weakest of them.

"Oh come on, you destroyed everything else, if you want to leave the house then you have to wear this" she said with a sinister smile on her lips.

Shukaku's eyes narrowed in rage. "You can stab me, burn me, even seal me back into that cursed tea kettle, before I would even have a nightmares of wearing that derogatory item!" he spat with venom soaking each word.

"Look, Gaara put me in charge of you, meaning you have to do as I say. So are you going to put the collar on, or am I going to have hit you over the head with my fan until you do?" she asked.

"Hah, nice try girly, but I know you'd never waste a perfectly good fan like that. Now why don't you throw that there collar out the window and we can go visit your dear brother in his big fancy office" he replied.

Temari realised how impossible it would be to make Shukaku wear something bright pink, and she had already figured out that his hair was too dark to dye any shade of pink, it would just come out a dark red. She actually paused for a minute to imagine what he would look like with red hair, she found that it wouldn't actually look too bad on him, therefor it wasn't worth attempting.

When she came to from her musings, she noticed that Shukaku was watching her with a knowing smile on his face, as if he now held all the playing cards in this game.

"You were thinking of how good I would look with red hair weren't you?" he asked with a cocky tone.

Temari blushed in embarrassment before giving a war cry and tackling him to the ground. The next few minutes were filled with a series of punches, bites, and the occasional yelp of pain; it ended with Shukaku sitting on top of a defeated Temari who now sported a new pink collar.

"I feel violated," she muttered.

"And how does that make you feel?" he asked slowly.

"Shut up, this isn't a therapy session," she snapped.

"I'm not so sure, you do seem to be far more agitated lately, and perhaps I should sit you down for a few therapy sessions. Don't worry, I'm a good listener," he said with no lack of sarcasm in his voice.

"If you don't get off me this instant, I'll…"

"You'll what, try to beat me up again? Are you not in this situation due to the most recent attempt of said threat?" he asked smugly.

"I could always get Gaara to make you wear it," she answered with her own smug smile.

Shukaku gave an amused laugh and gently placed a hand on Temari's shoulder; he leant down until he was next to her head. "Are you really gunna bring your little brother into this Temari; a strong, capable young woman, such as yourself, crying to her little brother for help. Not to mention that after I thoroughly wiped the floor with Gaara and his army of racoons last night, well I doubt he would risk losing anymore of his pride over a petty squabble such as this" he said mockingly.

Temari's response came in the form of her head hitting the floor repeatedly, followed closely by a pained groan. She was really beginning to hate Shukaku, even more so than she did when she thought he was a psychotic, mass murdering, demon tanuki.

"Fine, you don't have to wear the collar" she sighed in defeat.

"Good to see I got my point across. However, because you tried to make me wear it, I'm now declaring that you will wear it" he declared with a cheerful grin.

Once again, the sound of Temari's head hitting the floor could be heard through the room. Shukaku's expression took on a more concerned nature as he wondered if she was actually losing whatever sanity she had left.

* * *

><p>Gaara was having a particularly boring day. Thanks to Shukaku suppressing his emotions, he had never had a real problem with sitting in an office all day, but now that the seal was broken and his emotions were returning, he could honestly say he hated it. He was able to sedate his suffering with a few things he enjoyed, even going so far as to find a new, more convenient way to complete his paperwork.<p>

It for this reason, that he had called his sister and former tenant, to his office. He had a plan to make his boredom go away; Temari and Shukaku were going to help him with that plan, one way or another. All he had to do was wait for them to arrive, and he would be free of this isolated hell known as an office.

* * *

><p>When Shukaku and Temari entered Gaara's office, they were expecting something stereotypical; perhaps an endless sea of paperwork, an angry Gaara with bloodshot eyes, they wouldn't even put it past catching him with a girl. What they did not expect, was to walk in on a small group of cat sized, tanuki form Shukaku's, all working as a cohesive unit to complete the piles of paperwork on Gaara's desk.<p>

As this was happening, Gaara sat to the side of the office enjoying a large bowl of miso ramen, not even taking notice of his two guests until Temari cleared her throat.

"What exactly are you doing Gaara?" she asked dangerously.

Gaara froze mid mouthful and stared at his sister from the corner of his eye. He thought long and hard for a reasonable explanation as to why his office was in the situation it was now, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of anything. Fear began to consume him; his sister was not the forgiving type and he knew from watching her interaction with Kankuro that she could dish out one mean ass kicking if she got mad.

He instantly regretted sending Kankuro on a mission to the hidden leaf, his services as a personal meat shield would have been highly valued at this current point in time. Normally he wouldn't be worried by his sister, but since he had lost access to the power of the Ichibi, he had become far more concerned with his wellbeing when faced with angry teenage girls.

"Yes Gaara, what are doing using sand creation that share an uncanny resemblance to myself to do your paperwork?" asked Shukaku with a much similar, but far more terrifying voice.

"I was finding out what Naruto meant when he said ramen was the food of the gods," Gaara offered hopefully.

"And the chibi versions of me?" added Shukaku

"It seemed like a proficient way to complete my paperwork while also making a joke of you," admitted Gaara as he cowered slightly behind his bowl of ramen.

Almost instantly, Shukaku's evil presence in the room disappeared, and he gave a careless shrug before walking over to one of the office chairs and sitting down. Temari gave him a dumbfounded look, as if saying through some kind of telepathy "The fuck man?" Somehow, Shukaku understood this message completely and answered the unasked question calmly.

"The kid was honest with me, I respect that. Had he tried to lie, you would currently hold a front row ticket to see this floor getting polished with his face," answered the Bijuu.

"So you're just going to forgive him that easily, just because he was honest with you?" Temari asked in shock.

"Yes" he answered simply. "Maybe if you were a little honest with me, you'd receive a similar curtesy," he added.

"What have I ever lied to you about?" she questioned.

"That's not important right now, what's important is that we still don't know what Gaara called us here for," said Shukaku, changing the subject as fast as he possibly could.

"Indeed, the sand man is correct," stated Gaara.

"Don't just change the subject!" shouted Temari.

"Did you just call me sand man?" asked Shukaku.

"Silence. The reason I called you both here is because I fear that my skills have been severely impaired due to my no longer containing Shukaku; to correct this problem we are going to participate in a three-person self-improvement battle royal," explained Gaara as he paced back and forth with his arms folded behind his back.

"So in other words, you just really want to fight us," said Temari.

"That would be correct"

"Well in that case I shall be waiting for you both out in the desert somewhere, have fun finding me!" exclaimed Shukaku before he disappeared in a small tornado of sand.

Temari sighed and started walking to the door before Gaara interrupted her.

"Temari, why are you wearing a pink dog collar?" he asked innocently.

"I lost a fight, and a good portion of my pride along with it," she answered simply before walking out the door and closing it behind her. Gaara gave a shrug and picked up his still unfinished bowl of ramen, before following his sister.

* * *

><p>Somehow, news of the three-way free for all sparring battle had gotten out to the public, so now Gaara, Temari, and Shukaku, were surrounded by an audience of nearly 100 villagers. All three of them could see the glares aimed at Shukaku; they guessed that they were all hoping for Gaara and Temari to put him in his place. This actually amused the Ichibi a little bit.<p>

Temari also noticed that all of the villagers were looking curiously at the pink dog collar around her neck; she swore that during this battle the Ichibi would suffer an unfortunate castration accident. Gaara had decided to bring along an extra bowl of ramen, which he was currently eating with a smile.

"Any ideas on how this is gunna work?" asked Shukaku.

"Yeah I have one, Gaara sits back while I kick your ass and make you wear the collar this time," snapped Temari.

"I think that would ruin the purpose of why I brought you both here," stated Gaara.

"Whatever, let's just start this already so I can hit something!" she exclaimed while pulling her battle fan from her back.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I would much rather continue to enjoy the wonders of ramen. So how about you two fight and I referee the match while also keeping the villagers safe from whatever might escape the battle field," offered Gaara.

Temari glared at Shukaku, "I'll accept that" she said through gritted teeth.

Shukaku just shrugged and dropped into a lazy defensive stance. They spent the next two minutes sizing each other up and forming a strategy; Shukaku already had a basic idea of what to expect from Temari, but she wasn't too sure on what to expect from him. From what Temari had read, the Bijuu were beings that were almost incapable of chakra exhaustion, meaning she couldn't just get him to wear himself out.

She also remembered that each Bijuu was known to have specific abilities that gave them an edge in battle; most assumed that Shukaku's was his manipulation of sand, but Temari wasn't too sure, him being a tanuki presented the possibility of him being far trickier than he appeared. So far he hadn't moved, his lazy defensive stance almost making her feel like she wasn't a threat to him in any way.

Eventually her patience wore out and Temari shot forward in an explosion of speed. Most of the onlookers were aww struck by how fast she was, but Shukaku didn't even bat an eye. Mid sprint, Temari skidded to a halt and used her momentum to swing her now fully open battle fan out infront of her. The resulting wind created from her swing, erupted out and sped towards Shukaku in the form of hundreds of tiny wind blades.

She had taken into account that last time she had tried using a wind attack on him, it had only been single blades, she was hoping that at least one of these little ones would make it through his defence. The storm of wind blades raced towards Shukaku, leaving a small sandstorm in its wake. Temari watched, as it got closer and closer, before it was almost within spitting distance of him, and then with a wave of his arm, it was gone.

Temari's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. He had just cancelled her jutsu as if swatting away a fly, literally. She watched as he returned to his lazy defensive stance with a small smile on his face. In that moment, Temari knew, she knew that he was playing with her. He was one of the nine Bijuu; nothing she could do would even register as an attack to him. She sighed in defeat; it was pointless. A wicked grin pulled at her lips, but just because it was a losing battle, didn't mean she wasn't going to vent off some frustration.

With partially renewed vigour, Temari bit down on her thumb, and smeared the blood across the three purple moon patterns on the inside of her fan. She pulled it back behind her and in one clean motion, swung it forward. This time the storm of blades wasn't quite as big, but the blades were larger and more refined; that was where the similarities ended. Shukaku instantly noticed the small puff of smoke that came from within the chaos of wind blades, and he knew exactly what was coming.

"Shit" he muttered as he prepared for whatever was about to become of Temari's jutsu.

As soon as the puff of smoke appeared, the windstorm exploded, its power had nearly tripled and its speed increased to frightening levels; this time it actually created a full sized sand storm, which Gaara had to quickly divert away from the audience. It impacted on the spot Shukaku had been standing, with enough force to create a small shockwave equal to a few large barrels full of exploding notes.

Everyone watched intently, waiting for the cloud of dust and sand to disappear, hoping that the Ichibi had been destroyed by such a powerful jutsu. It didn't take long for Temari to get impatient, and with a quick wave of her fan, she dispersed the cloud with a gust of wind. What was revealed made her both smile, and feel uneasy.

Standing right where he had been before, was Shukaku, his clothes had been shredded and cut up but he himself didn't have a scratch. He seemed to be breathing in a more ragged way, as if he had actually had to exert himself slightly, which brought a small victorious smile to Temari's face. Then she noticed the small ferret lying off to his side, unconscious; it was Kamatari, her personal summon that she had called to help her with that last attack.

From what she could see, he wasn't hurt too bad. His blue vest had been torn slightly and his eye patch had fallen off, his scythe was stabbed in the ground next to him; aside from some bruising, he would be fine.

"I have to admit, I did not expect you to have a ferret summon," said Shukaku, his breathing still somewhat ragged. "I didn't even know they were around anymore, damn that hurt!" he exclaimed.

Temari smirked smugly. "Aww, is the Ichibi no Tanuki getting beaten by a girl? Who would have thought it would be this easy," she said mockingly.

Shukaku narrowed his eyes. That was a challenge if he had ever heard one, and he never backed down from a challenge. "You've asked for it girl" he replied.

He dropped his defensive stance and bent his knees slightly, while also putting his hands infront of him as if holding an imaginary ball. The explosion of chakra that followed was strong enough to rival the ones that he had unleashed over the previous days, if all the other ones had been combined that is. The chakra swirled around him, causing what remained of his coat to billow out wildly; soon a small tornado of wind and sand started forming around him.

Temari had never felt this level of raw power before, it was beyond suffocating, as if it actually had a physical presence weighing down on her. She could feel herself shaking despite her better judgment not to. She watched as his blood red chakra seeped out of his body and started forming a small sphere between his hands, the sphere quickly began to spin at an insane speed causing the winds around him to be sucked in and absorbed by it.

It was a wind jutsu, Temari knew that much at least. She had always been good at telling when a wind jutsu was about to be used; but a wind jutsu on this level, with this much raw power behind it, it should have been impossible to control an element as unstable as wind to such a degree. Then she remembered who she was fighting. Shukaku had been alive for at least a millennia, for all she knew he could have been the first one to utilise wind nature chakra, his mastery over the element was unquestionable.

She looked at his face, which was locked in an expression of concentration; the dark blue markings that extended from the black rings around his eyes were glowing slightly. Her eyes went back to the sphere he was now holding; it was at least the size of a dogs head, but then it collapsed, imploding on itself until it was barely the size of a marble. Temari noticed with a hint of fear, that as soon as it had shrunk, the power vortex around Shukaku increased.

Shukaku steadied himself and raised the small sphere slightly, and then with just a twitch of his hands, released it. The shockwave created from the sphere shooting forward, created yet another cloud of dust that hid Shukaku from view. A long thin line of sand was torn up from the ground as the bullet of energy passed over it, covering the distance between Shukaku and Temari almost instantly.

Temari was frozen. Shukaku wouldn't actually try to kill her would he? She knew that so far, he had done nothing to give away hostile intensions, but even so, could he have perhaps misjudged their difference in power. She watched as the small glowing white sphere sped towards her, if it wasn't for her ninja training she would never have been able to see it. Once it got close enough she clenched her eyes shut, waiting for what she assumed would be agonising pain followed quickly by death; a minute went by and she still didn't feel anything.

Opening her eyes slowly, Temari, at first, thought she was staring at the sun. She took a few steps back, with each step her eyes widened further; what she thought had been the sun, was in fact the small sphere Shukaku had shot at her. It had stopped dead, no more than 3 inches from her face; the thin line of sand that it had torn up had crystallised into clear glass, and it just hovered harmlessly where it had stopped.

"I was expecting you to at least dodge that," said Shukaku from behind her.

Temari jumped and spun around to glare at him. "How am I supposed to dodge something that moves faster than I can? Not to mention that it has enough power to shred the entire desert to pieces," she yelled back at him.

"Oh please, it wouldn't have so much as scratched you, at most you'd only be crystallised," he explained calmly, as if it wasn't that big of deal.

"Only crystallised? Are you insane?" she screamed.

"I thought I made that fact perfectly clear that night on the roof" he defended.

"I thought you were joking"

"I never joke about that kind of stuff"

"Well how am I supposed to know that when you joke about everything else"

By this point in the argument, Gaara had handed out popcorn and most of the villagers were making bets on who would win, some villagers were even making wild accusations about what Temari had been doing with Shukaku on a roof.

"I thought you were smart enough to figure it out," yelled Shukaku.

"Whatever, you win the fight anyway, now what are you going to do about that?" Temari yelled while pointing an accusing finger at the small white sphere that was still hovering in mid-air.

Shukaku huffed, then walked over and grabbed the small sphere. He walked back to Temari, grabbed her hand, and placed it in her palm. She expected it to burn or cut her, something that powerful should not have been possible for her to hold. Temari could feel the chakra contained in it and she knew that it dwarfed her own chakra capacity many thousands of times over, but at the same time, she could feel it pulsating and altering its flow to match hers.

"What's it doing?" she asked.

"It's matching your chakra, in other words its adjusting itself to suit you perfectly. There's also the minor detail that it will now react violently should anyone other than you or me try to hold it," he explained.

"And why exactly do I have this?"

Shukaku shrugged. "Think of it as a prize for actually surprising me"

"Uh, thanks, I guess"

"You're welcome; now, I would like to offer to train you in wind manipulation, if you would allow me to that is"

"Why?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Boredom, mostly" he answered simply.

"You're just going to keep bugging me until I accept aren't you?"

"Correct"

"Fine"

"Good, now your first task as part of my training is quite simple; drag my back to the house," he said before collapsing on the ground unconscious.

Temari groaned, but she began dragging him back to the mansion anyway. Hopefully, the idiot would have some good advice to offer her with training.


	7. Chapter 7

Authors Notes:

Here's the new chapter. I'm sorry if its a little dull and full of not so important information but i'm getting to the point in this story where i really need to begin to look at the actual story behind everything. This chapter serves as a way for me to not only play around with the concept of chakra, but also to act as an explanation for how and why some characters will be much more powerful than they normally would be. I will understand if some of you do not like this approach and i am sorry for that.

I would also like to note that this is not the beginning of Temari's training, that will come later. This chapter is really more of an explanation while the next chapter will be used to answer some question i believe need to be answered. After that is done i will have a surprise in stall for everyone. also keep in mind that if at any time something in my story does not make sense, then please review or message me what you would like to know and i will try to explain it as best i can, unless it is meant to be misunderstood for the stories sake, in which case you will have to suffer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but i did purchase a small block of land on the moon for around $60, I'm still waiting for them to bring it down.

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><p>Temari looked out over the vast emptiness of the desert that surrounded them. If she had of known that Shukaku's training would be a three-day camping trip, she might have rejected her previous acceptance of the idea. However, here they were, in the middle of nowhere, with literally nothing in sight.<p>

She looked over at her temporary teacher, only to find him hopping from one block of sand to another before they fell apart, and then making more cubes to jump to. She shook her head as if trying to make his stupidity disappear, unfortunately it didn't. He was still there, jumping from cube to cube, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

It had taken Temari much longer than she would care to admit, to realise that Shukaku's carefree attitude was probably because he really didn't have anything to care about. Being an immortal construct of chakra meant that even if someone did kill him, he would just reform after a couple of years. She guessed that since none of the nine Bijuu ever stuck together, that being one of them would be somewhat lonely.

She would never voice her thoughts on the matter, knowing Shukaku he would probably just turn it into a joke about her having the hots for him. There had been a few occasions where she had been tempted to smash him over the head with her fan, but the memory of having to wear that pink dog collar would always keep such ideas at a safe distance.

"Do you even know where we're going?" she asked; it was insanely hot and they had been walking for at least four hours. "If we get lost I will kill you to survive," she added.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, we're almost there" he replied between each cube jump.

"And where exactly is 'there', you haven't so much as hinted at where we're going or even how you plan to train me, I'm beginning to question if you even have this thing planned out at all" she said accusingly.

"Of course I don't have a plan, what kind of simpleton do you take me for. We are simply going to find out what your current limits are, and then I'm going to show you how to improve what needs to be improved" he replied casually.

He took a while to realise that Temari had stopped walking and was now looking down in such a way that her hair shadowed her face.

"So what you're saying is that you dragged me all the way out here, all for something we could have done in the village?" she asked dangerously.

"Absolutely not, I'm crazy, but not that crazy. No, I dragged you out here so we don't accidentally hurt anyone, and because you can't risk any outside distractions during this kind of training. If you lose concentration for too long, you might just end your shinobi career," he warned.

Temari gulped. What kind of insane training did he have in mind; if losing focus could end her career then it must be important right.

"What exactly am I training for?" she asked fearfully.

Shukaku stopped jumping from cube to cube and walked up to her, he looked at her with a dead serious expression.

"I'm going to teach you how to use your chakra," he said calmly.

The fear in Temari was instantly forgotten as rage overflowed from within her. She screamed and punched Shukaku in the face hard enough to send him back a few feet.

"I already know how to use my chakra you moron," she yelled.

"If you would just let me explain, I could easily point out what I mean," he said while standing back up and dusting himself off.

Temari crossed her arms and started tapping her foot. "Explain then" she ordered.

"Ok, yes, you know how to use chakra, but I plan on teaching you how to use _your _chakra" he explained.

"And what the hell is the difference between that and the chakra I already use?" she asked angrily.

"I am so glad you asked," he said while gesturing for her to walk next to him. "So far, you can utilise the chakra within you quite well, even going so far as to change it from a neutral form to that of your nature affinity. However, this chakra was never meant to be used for exterior use, hence its short lifespan once removed from the body. At most it was meant to keep you alive and heal you when needed, naturally, those with larger chakra capacities tend to live longer, healthier lives," he explained.

Temari had to admit, so far this explanation made a disturbing amount of sense. It also explained why people with large chakra supplies always got so old.

"By using this chakra for external purposes, you are shortening your lifespan and also exhausting yourself in the process. It is a mistake that even most summon clans have not yet learnt how to correct; aside from the Bijuu, only a handful of beings know the secret. There are of course those, like the toad summons for example, who have mastered Senjutsu, a bastardised form of manipulating nature chakra with surprisingly positive results" he continued.

"By using Senjutsu, beings such as the toads are able to increase their life force and strength, with very few negative side effects. This is flawed however, since the current version of Senjutsu requires a mixture of both nature chakra and one's internal chakra. Mixing both chakras not only exhausts you faster, but also dilutes the purity of the natural chakra, making it unstable and volatile. I believe the general result of failure with Senjutsu is being turned to stone"

Temari was still listening intently to Shukaku with her eyes opened as wide as they could possibly go. She never would have guessed shed be getting her entire understanding of chakra and how it worked, shattered and rebuilt by an arguably insane Bijuu. In the end it didn't matter, she had a chance to learn to be stronger, and she would not lose it.

"I'm not sure how many forms of chakra humans are aware of, but the basic four are spiritual, physical, yin, and yang chakra. Your internal chakra is a combination of the excess spiritual and physical chakras your body produces"

"Wait, if the chakra I normally use is just the excess, then where is all of the rest; also, since when are you this smart?" Temari asked.

"I'm insane, not stupid. Now shut up and listen to my lecture," he answered.

"I'm not a child you know, don't treat me like one" she retorted.

Shukaku stopped walking and directed an accusing glare at her. "Out of the two of us, who has lived for over a thousand years?" he asked.

"Um, you, I guess" she answered.

"And out of the two of us, who is a being made of chakra that was created by the very man who taught how to use chakra to this world, and by right knows more about chakra than a 16 year old girl?" he asked.

"You" she answered through gritted teeth.

"Exactly, so shut the fuck up for a minute and let me have my moment!" he exclaimed before continuing with walking, Temari begrudgingly following.

"Now, to answer your question, the rest of the chakra created from combining your spiritual and physical chakras, is contained and regulated throughout what you call the eight celestial gates. Normally, humans are incapable of opening the eight gates, without severe physical trauma, or death. This is because over the course of your life, your body is continuously producing physical and spiritual chakra and mixing them together. Since you are not constantly using the supply your body makes, it builds up within the eight gates"

"This build up is regulated throughout each gate, each one being able to contain more chakra than the previous one. Each time a gate is opened, a small amount of that built up chakra is flooded directly into the persons chakra coils, a brutal and very painful experience," he continued to explain.

During this extremely long lecture, Temari had remained attentive for the entire time. At first, it had seemed like the mad ramblings of an immortal lunatic, but the more she listened the more it started to make sense, a disturbing amount of sense.

"Can I ask a question?" she interrupted.

"Yes you may"

"You said that physical and spiritual energy was actually chakra, if that's true, then why can't we use them separately?" she questioned.

"Well you can, but it would require a level of concentration beyond comprehension; that, and those particular forms of chakra can only be used to resurrect things" he answered.

"Wait, you can resurrect things?" she asked sceptically.

"Technically, yes, in fact anything that can use chakra has the ability to resurrect others; only problem is that it would kill you and piss off the Shinigami, trust me when I tell you that you do not want him chasing after your soul"

"But aren't the Bijuu immortal, couldn't you resurrect people without consequences?" she asked.

"I suppose by that logic we could, but there are greater powers at play when it comes to things like that. It's one thing to piss off the Shinigami, it's a whole other story when you piss off Kami," he answered with a shudder.

"Ok, I think I can understand your point on that one," replied Temari. From the way she saw it, people had always feared the power of the Bijuu, so it made sense there would be something the Bijuu would fear as well.

"Anyway, the whole point of this lecture is because I wanted you to understand that for this training to work, you will have to stop using your internal chakra like you normally would, instead I'm gunna teach you how to open the eight celestial gates. Once you can open all eight gates, I'll begin training you on how to control and manipulate the chakra within them"

"But if I only use the chakra collected within my celestial gates, then won't I have to open them each time I need to use chakra?" Temari asked.

"Don't worry, I have a solution to that particular problem," he answered.

"And what about the chakra already built up in my gates? Wont opening them all now kill me?" she asked with worry in her voice.

"I do have a way around that, but it's gunna be risky and I'll need you to trust me," he said.

"Yeah, sure, trust one of the nine Bijuu, sounds like a blast" she joked half-heartedly.

Shukaku stopped walking and grabbed Temari by her arm. "I'm not joking Temari. If we want this to work without killing you, or worse, then you have to trust me and do exactly as I say. Do you understand?" he asked.

"Y-Yes" she stuttered.

"Good. Now, let's keep going, we're almost where we need to be," he said before once again continuing with walking.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something" Temari said quietly.

"And what might that be?" he asked, his attitude had already returned to cheerful and over enthusiastic.

"Why are you helping me, and why did you heal Gaara? We haven't done anything to deserve such kindness from you, if anything you should be destroying the village for keeping you sealed for nearly a century. What caused you to have such a drastic change of heart?" she asked.

"I'll tell you what, if you survive the first stage of opening the gates, I'll tell you whatever you want to know" he replied with a grin.

Temari was about to say something back, but something in the distance caught her eye. Upon closer inspection, she realised that it appeared to be their destination. After an hour or so, they had gotten close enough for Temari to realise what it was; she observed her new surroundings with an awestruck expression, and made a note to remember this location for future reference.

If she had of known that Shukaku had been leading her to the largest oasis she had ever seen, she might not have complained so much during the walk. The oasis was beyond beautiful, a true diamond among the dunes of an otherwise bleak desert. Temari almost couldn't believe that such a place existed in wind country; she knew there were a few oases within the desert, but they were small and offered very little in terms of water and shade.

The largest oasis Temari knew of was what was now known as the park in the middle of the hidden sand village; the one she was in now was at least three times that size. Grass covered the ground in every direction, and in the centre of it all was a massive pool of water. She marvelled at the multiple trees that grew around the edge of the grassy field, acting as a kind of barrier between the harsh desert and the pleasant greenery.

"If you're quite done already, I would prefer to get the first part of this over with as quickly as possible," said Shukaku.

"How did you know where this place was? Better yet, why has it never been found before?" asked Temari.

"This desert used to belong solely to me, so I know where everything is and ever will be; as for why no one has found it, well the desert has always been infused with my chakra, even while I was sealed, therefor it would have actively kept certain locations hidden from people" he explained.

"Why would you want to keep things hidden?" she asked.

"Sometimes it's good to know that you have places to go that no one else knows about, that, and I have some things I'd like to keep secret," he answered. "Now get over here," he added.

Temari huffed, but walked over and stood infront of him anyway.

"So what exactly is this first step you seem so worried about?" she asked.

"The first step requires you to empty the built up reserves of chakra within the eight gates. Since doing this by yourself would kill you before you even emptied the first gate, I've decided to lend a helping hand. While you supress your internal chakra, I'll open all eight of your gates at once; if this works it should allow me to completely empty your reserves in one go" he explained.

"And if it doesn't work?" she asked quietly.

"If it doesn't work the process will backfire and cause your entire chakra network to explode violently, killing you and more than likely me along with it" he answered calmly.

"It would be strong enough to kill a Bijuu?" Temari asked with a somewhat sceptical tone.

"Well considering that your internal chakra reserves are quite large for a girl your age, I would say that the explosion caused by your real chakra would easily wipe this oasis from the desert"

"Is that why you wanted to do this so far away from the village?"

"Actually no, I wouldn't care all too much if the village was damaged, I just thought you would appreciate the peace and tranquility this place offers, trust me, you will need it after this"

"Will it hurt?"

"Do you want the honest answer, or the lie you're hoping for?"

"The honest answer I suppose"

"You couldn't possibly imagine how much this will hurt"

Before she could say anything, two blocks of sandstone erupted from the ground, still covered in a soft patch of grass. She turned and gave Shukaku a questioning look.

"You should probably sit down for this"

Temari did as he suggested and sat down on one of the sandstone blocks while he sat on the one across from her. He reached out and grabbed onto her hands, keeping a firm grip on them.

"Are you ready?" asked Shukaku.

"As ready as I'll ever be" she answered.

As soon as she was done answering, Shukaku's cursed seal markings started to glow. Temari could feel his chakra building up to astounding levels, and then his marking started to expand and move onto her hands, before slowly crawling up her arms. She could feel his chakra flowing into her arms, gradually moving further into her body as the curse markings continued to spread across her skin.

The further his chakra got into her system, the more she could feel her own chakra being supressed. Remembering what he had said about her needing to suppress her chakra, she quickly began to do so. Almost immediately, she could feel his chakra flood into her without restraint, dwarfing her chakra with almost pathetic ease.

Shortly after, her chakra had been completely suppressed by Shukaku's; she opened her eyes slowly, only to see a bright light that obscured her vision; a feeling of Deja vu accompanied the golden chakra that had now engulfed both her and Shukaku, it reminded her of when he had healed Gaara. That's when the pain exploded from everywhere in her body, drowning out any form of conscious thought that could possibly exist in her mind.

The last thing she heard before the pain became too much for her to notice anything else was Shukaku muttering a single phrase that sent fear into the very depths of her being.

"First gate opened, seven more to go"

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><p>Temari's eyes fluttered open, allowing her to see the night sky littered with bright stars. She couldn't feel anything; her body was just a numb collection of dead weight attached to her head, at least for the moment. She guessed that it had been a few hours since she had passed out, the pain had been too much for her to stay conscious once Shukaku opened the fourth gate.<p>

She gained a new level of respect for that spandex wearing kid that Gaara had fought during the chunin exams, if what he went through was anything near what she experienced then he must have been made of steel. She heard a wheezing cough not far from where she was lying; turning her head, she saw Shukaku sitting up against a tree. He looked exhausted and had trails of dried blood flowing from his mouth, nose, and eyes.

If Temari wasn't so tired she would have widened her eyes, instead she just gave her best attempt of a sigh, which sounded like a normal breath. "What happened to you?" she asked.

Shukaku gave a shallow and slightly pained chuckle. "I forgot to tell you didn't I," he said mostly to himself.

"Tell me what?"

"While my chakra is infused with someone like that, I feel everything; luckily for you, all you got was the echo of what I felt," he answered with another chuckle. "I never would have guessed you had _that much _chakra stored away"

Temari actually found the strength to widen her eyes this time. If all she felt was the echo of the pain he felt, then how had he stayed conscious through the whole process? More importantly, why did he offer to perform the task if he knew it was going to hurt so much?

"I guess you held up your end of the bargain, you're still alive after all, so I'll hold up my end too," he said with a cough. "You can ask any question you want, I'll answer honestly, I swear"

Temari could only think of one question that she needed the answer for, a question that had been bugging her ever since the first conversation she had with Shukaku in Gaara's hospital room.

"What did you mean, when you said that you had to repay a debt? And what does it have to do with my mother?"


	8. Chapter 8

Authors Notes:

Here is the new chapter. I am sorry if it is a little dull but insomnia has its effects on my creativity. This will be the last chapter i post of this story for a little while since i am required to take a minor vacation away from my laptop. It should only be a week or two but i cant say for sure.

I would also like to inform everyone that i do have another story idea planned for a Naruto fanfic, it will not be in any related to this one and wont be updated as often but hopefully it will be a good read. Keep in mind that no matter how many stories i may write for Naruto, none of them will focus on Naruto himself. I find Naruto to be a rather annoying character and i don't have the patience to write an entire story with him in every chapter.

I look forward to any and all reviews i get for this chapter, i am still eagerly awaiting my first negative one. Remember to review or message me if you have any questions about this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if i did Tenten would have much more screen time.

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><p>Temari glared at Shukaku. It had been quite a long time since she had asked him the question, and yet he had just sat there silently, as if trying to act as if he hadn't heard her. She knew that he had, she had seen his slight flinch at the question almost immediately after she had asked him. It didn't make much sense to her, it was a simple enough question to answer, yet he seemed quite content with staying perfectly silent.<p>

She sighed mentally. Perhaps she wasn't looking at it in the right way; whatever was important enough to make a Bijuu end up in debt, whether by force or for personal reasons, was probably important enough to be kept quiet about. Then again, he had said that he would answer any question she asked, so she could always hold him to that.

Shukaku, for his part, was having a small mental breakdown. He cursed his own stupidity in letting Temari ask whatever question she wanted, he almost wanted to punch himself for swearing to answer honestly. He had been avoiding that exact question for as long as he could, and now he had given her the easiest way to get the answer. If it wouldn't make him look like an idiot, he probably would have prayed to Kami for a quick repeat of the last two days.

"So are you going to tell me about this debt of yours?" asked Temari.

"You wouldn't by any chance be able to ask a different question would you?" he replied hopefully.

"Not a chance in hell, Sandy" she answered.

Shukaku's eyes widened and his eyebrows nearly went passed his hairline. "Did you just call me Sandy?" he asked dangerously.

"Yeah, what of it, Sandy" she replied playfully.

"Could you not?" he asked emotionlessly.

"Hmmm, I could, but I'm not going to" she answered in a singsong voice.

This time Shukaku tilted his head to the side like a dog; was it just him, or was Temari getting weird.

"What's with the happiness?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know, I just feel so free and happy, like I'm floating on a cloud," she said childishly, ending with a much too girly giggle.

Shukaku watched as Temari raised her arms to the sky from her lying down position, and started grabbing at the stars. She continued to do this while giggling uncontrollably, until her arms dropped limply to the ground and she fell asleep. For a while, Shukaku worried that he had accidentally caused her some form of brain damage, his fear didn't last long though; he knew that if that were the case, it wouldn't be too hard to fix.

He breathed out a quiet, relaxing sigh and allowed himself to lie down on the grass, not too far from where Temari was. All he could do now, was wait until she woke up, and pray that she hadn't reverted back to the mentality of a toddler; he also prayed that she would forget about him swearing to answer her question, unfortunately for him, miracles were a somewhat rare occurrence.

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><p>When Temari woke up the sun was shining brightly in her face. She cursed whoever had opened her window again; she had a sneaking suspicion that it was just Shukaku being an asshole, but even he wasn't that stupid, or at least she thought he wasn't.<p>

She rolled over and tried to bury her face in her pillow, only to get a face full of dirt and grass. She leapt awake while spitting and sputtering; looking around frantically, she realised that she was in a massive and unbelievably beautiful oasis. While observing her surroundings, she noticed something that intrigued and confused her.

Sprawled out on the ground, not too far from her, was Shukaku. He was fast asleep and looked hilariously peaceful as he lied there silently. It would have been something she'd gladly laugh at, if not for the dried blood all over his face, which confused her immensely. _'Can Bijuu even bleed?' _she thought to herself; a normal person would have been worried about Shukaku, but Temari knew that even if he did die, it wouldn't be for very long.

Temari couldn't help but actually laugh aloud when Shukaku's nose and mouth started twitching into an animalistic snarl of sorts, her laughter quickly evolving into a hysterical cackle as she rolled around on the ground clutching at her stomach. These particular actions, unfortunately, caused the sleeping Shukaku to awaken with an annoyed groan.

"Shut up and let me sleep Matatabi, I'll build you another sand castle later," he mumbled sleepily.

If Temari was struggling to stifle her laughter before, then she was literally battling with her lungs by this point. Eventually her need to laugh won the battle, and she exploded into extremely loud and hysterical laughter that served to wake Shukaku completely.

Shukaku had been expecting a few things when he finally woke up. He had been expecting a possibly pissed off Temari, he had even taken into account the possibility of a Temari with the mentality of a toddler; what he had not expected was to wake up to Temari laughing hysterically at something while rolling around on the ground clutching her stomach. His confused tilting of his head only seemed to fuel her laughter, something that he still didn't know how started.

"What the hell are you laughing at Temari?" he asked grumpily.

"Haha, you should have seen your face when you were asleep, it was so cute!" she exclaimed.

Shukaku narrowed his eyes at the still laughing girl. In all his years, he had been called many things ranging from and not limited to, psychopathic, murderous, bloodthirsty, insane, stupid, incoherent, hell he had even been called an animal. That last one was more or less true, but when one was as insane as he was, working on technicalities was always an option.

"I will have you know, Temari, that I, the Ichibi no Tanuki, am not cute. I am in fact a high functioning lunatic with an incredible amount of power at my disposal" he replied with a growl.

"And adorable dog like characteristics, especially the facial twitches when you sleep" she added with an evil smile.

"I have destroyed towns and slaughtered families for lesser insults," he said.

"Aww, is Shukaku upset?" she asked childishly.

"Shukaku is about to bury you up to your neck in sand and shave your head" he threatened.

"You wouldn't dare!" she exclaimed.

"If you don't shut up then I very well might"

"No you wouldn't, you love me too much," she said sarcastically.

"Since when are you the one picking on me?" Shukaku asked with a curious expression.

"I don't know, I just feel really awesome today, like I could fight you head on and actually give you a challenge," she explained excitedly.

"That must mean that your celestial gates are functioning properly, your chakra should be nearly replenished by now; if you're really lucky, you might even have enough chakra to start the next step of opening the gates" explained Shukaku.

"Wait, what are you talking about, what do you mean the next step, we haven't even done the first step; actually, now that I think about it, where are we?" she asked.

Shukaku gave Temari a serious look before grabbing her head and looking straight into her eyes. "Temari, what's the last thing you remember before waking up here?" he asked.

Temari freaked out slightly, she hadn't really seen the serious side of Shukaku so she assumed that whatever he was worried about was important somehow.

"Uh, I remember walking through the desert with you, I remember your lecture on chakra and the celestial gates. After that things get blurry, I remember seeing the stars, then I woke up here" she said quickly.

Shukaku sighed in relief. He hadn't been too worried about brain damage, he could easily heal that with his chakra; unfortunately, memory loss was a completely different ball game. Sure, he could repair most of the damage and return a good portion of memories, but none of the memories would trigger emotions after they were returned. As a direct result of this, the person could easily become an emotionless shell of their former selves.

He had seen it before, once. It hadn't been a pretty sight to see, even by the standards of a deranged psychopath such as himself; seeing someone do whatever they were told simply because they didn't have the capacity to think of what they wanted to do was not something he enjoyed.

"Hey, why are you freaking out? Did I forget something important?" she asked.

Shukaku spent the next few minutes explaining to Temari what she had forgotten, intentionally leaving out specific things, such as his promise to answer her questions; he also explained that her memory loss was due to the extreme stress of having all of her gates emptied. After he was confident that she knew everything she needed to, he told her to spend the rest of the day relaxing and getting used to her chakra gates being empty.

"I'm gunna go swimming in the lake, once you're done relaxing and feel like you want to start training, come and get me. Until then, explore and enjoy" said Shukaku before he walked off towards the small lake.

Temari just watched until he was out of view. Once he was gone, she frowned. Despite waking up with minor memory loss, she hadn't remained ignorant for long. She had regained all of her memories during Shukaku's explanation, she had merely played dumb to see how he would react. Suffice to say, she was worried. He had intentionally left out everything regarding her question, it was as if he really didn't want her to know, she wondered how he would react if she asked him again.

It didn't take long for Temari to get extremely bored. With her chakra gates now empty, she couldn't help but feel hyperactive. The way Shukaku had explained it, since her gates were no longer filled with stockpiled chakra, it allowed for her chakra network to flow much more smoothly. This in turn gave her a massive energy boost, along with altering her emotions for a short time; so far, Temari hadn't felt anything but happiness, even when she was trying to be frustrated at Shukaku.

With her best attempt of an annoyed huff, Temari got up and strode towards the lake. When she got there, she saw that Shukaku was just floating on his back in the centre of pool of water.

"Hey!" she yelled out.

Shukaku turned his head and gave her a blank look, as if her being there was the last thing on his mind. Temari shook her head and rubbed her eyes, his inconsistency with emotions and reactions was going to send her insane. She looked back up only to find herself looking straight into the bright yellow eyes of Shukaku, who had somehow covered the distance between them in an instant without so much a leaving a ripple on the water's surface.

"How the hell did you just do that?" she asked.

"I am so glad you asked!" he exclaimed with a wide toothy grin. "That happens to be the exact thing I plan for you to learn after what I'm about to do" he said excitedly.

"What do you mean 'what I'm about to do', you haven't even told me what the next ste…" Temari was cut off by Shukaku's hand slamming painfully into her stomach.

The hit threw her back a few feet and left her rolling on the ground, writhing in agony. Temari didn't know what he had just done, but the burning pain she felt in her stomach was almost as bad as when he emptied her first chakra gate. It gradually got worse, as the burning sensation began flowing from her stomach and into the rest of her body.

A few minutes passed, and the pain suddenly stopped, leaving Temari as a sweaty, twitching heap on the ground. Her breathing was heavy and ragged, she couldn't stop her muscles from convulsing randomly, and she felt like her celestial gates had just been opened all over again.

"What…did you…just…do… to me?" she managed to ask between pained breaths.

"I reopened all of your chakra gates, I also grafted a seal over your navel, it will keep your chakra gates open permanently" explained Shukaku with that same toothy grin.

_'That would explain why it felt so similar. What an asshole, he is so lucky I can't move right now'_ she screamed mentally.

"When you can stand again, yell out, I'll come and show you what your training will be for the next two days" he said before vanishing just as suddenly as he had appeared.

Temari growled in anger. At this rate, she was going to go down in history as the first person to murder a Bijuu with her bare hands; her only issue would be the fact that Shukaku would probably keep laughing the whole time she was trying kill him.

She waited for nearly an hour before her body began responding to her commands, the random twitch was still there but Temari could deal with that. Sitting up slowly, Temari pulled up her shirt to see exactly what the seal Shukaku had put on her looked like. She figured that if she was going to be stuck with it for the rest of her life, then she might as well make sure it looked good.

The seal wasn't anything impressive, consisting of a small circle marking above her navel, surrounded by eight small magatama that got larger with each one, forming a strange spiral pattern. Temari had to admit, it could have been a lot worse, and at least she didn't have a seal that extended all over her body like Shukaku. That reminded her; she had to ask him what that was all about, it had to be a powerful seal if it was grafted to his entire body.

"What do you think of it so far?" asked Shukaku.

Temari shrieked in a very un-Temari like fashion, and jumped away from Shukaku. "How the hell do you keep doing that?" she yelled at him.

"I told you that I would teach you once you had completed the next part, that seal was it, so now I can teach you," he explained. "Good thing we're here too, it's a perfect place to train in wind manipulation," he added cheerfully.

"Wait, I've already completed wind manipulation" Temari replied.

Shukaku smiled a truly evil smile, one that was so full of torturous madness that it made Temari pray it wasn't directed at her.

"I am completely aware that you have pretty much mastered wind manipulation, however, that is by the standards of your village; this training will get you up to _my _standards, perhaps" he explained, the wicked smile never once leaving face.

"And what exactly are your standards for wind manipulation" she asked curiously.

"This" he answered simply, before outstretching his right arm towards the lake.

Temari's eyes widened as a small spiralling sphere of wind started to form in the centre of the lake. It increased in speed and size until it was large enough to create a suction field strong enough to pull water into itself. She completely expected it to explode once the water hit, but it didn't, instead it absorbed the water into its form, creating an even larger sphere of water and wind.

Once it had stopped draining water from the lake, Shukaku clenched his open hand into a fist. The spinning elemental sphere suddenly stopped dead and compressed into a disk no thicker than the blade of a sword; with a wave of his arm, it fell apart, allowing the water to drop back into the lake.

Temari turned her wide eyes back to Shukaku, who was giving her a 'know it all' look. "How did you do that, was it a combination of wind and water manipulation?" she asked.

Shukaku smiled and shook his head no. "That was pure wind manipulation. Using the pure power of wind, I am able to absorb other elements into it; using wind manipulation to maintain equal amounts of wind and the other element, I can control both with ease. The final step is to learn how to use the wind to control the other element to such a degree that you are able to compress them into solid forms. It can work on any of the four elements outside of wind, and if you were to master it, it would even be possible to absorb an enemy's jutsu," he explained.

"You, however, will not even be attempting to do this until I deem you ready. If you get it wrong it could easily rip your arm to shreds, I've already cause Gaara to lose one of his arms, I will not be responsible for you losing yours" he added.

Temari nodded in understanding. Something that powerful would take time and patience, since Shukaku was probably the only person in the elemental countries to know how to do it, then she guessed he would be able to tell her when she was ready. She sure as hell wasn't going to go and try it without his consent, she had grown quite a liking to her arms, and it would be a cold day in hell when she would lose one to foolishness.

"Ok then, what will I be learning?" she asked politely and eagerly. Temari was going to learn as much as she could from Shukaku, even if he was an asshole, and if doing so required her to be kind then so be it.

Shukaku gave her an odd look, once again tilting his head to the side in curiosity. "You sure you're feeling ok, you didn't suddenly forget that you pretty much hate me right?" he asked.

"No, I haven't forgotten that. I am just making sure not to offend you in any way; I can't get a better teacher for wind manipulation anywhere else and I'll be damned if I'm losing you just because I wasn't kind" she stated seriously.

"Well can you stop?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked in confusion.

"Because its freaking me the fuck out, go back to bitchy Temari or something, anything but kind!" he exclaimed.

Temari's eyes widened in realisation and quickly gained a mischievous gleam; she now knew the perfect way to mess with Shukaku. Putting on a fake pout, she glided towards him with a very noticeable sway of her hips, once she reached him, she wrapped her arms around one of his.

"Is the little Ichibi not used to women being kind towards him?" she cooed.

Her act was quickly ended as Shukaku fell to the ground laughing hysterically. Temari was shocked, did he seriously just laugh at her flirting, and was she really that easily to look passed. Her shock turned to rage and she quickly ended Shukaku's laughing with a solid kick to his stomach.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" she screamed.

"I'm sorry…but you just…tried to flirt…with me…just to see…how I would react" he said between barely stifled laughter, before quickly going back to hysterics.

"What, are you saying that you don't find this attractive?" she asked while gesturing to herself.

Shukaku instantly stopped laughing and sat up. "Now I never said that, I'm just laughing because any time a woman has ever tried flirting with me, it's always been for some kind of favour, that or she was trying to get close enough to kill me" he said as he gave her an appreciative up and down glance. "I will admit though, you are definitely one of the better looking ones, plus you weren't doing it for ulterior motives. You don't actually have the hots for me do you?" he asked with a lecherous grin.

It took a few seconds for Temari to realise how catastrophically her plan had backfired, and then a further few seconds to process everything he had said. She should have known that women in the past would have tried to flirt their way into his favour; she should have known that it would have been a futile attempt to mess with him like that. That's when the last part of what he said began to process in her mind.

Her brow furrowed in rage and she tackled him with a scream. Shukaku spent the next few seconds trying to block punches and being bitten on the arms, while also having Temari sitting on his stomach. He had to admit, this definitely was not how he imagined himself ending up when he teased her, but that didn't mean he couldn't use it to his advantage.

"Well Temari, who would have known you'd be so forward, and the biting too; I never would have picked you for the type of girl who liked it rough" he said with a mad chuckle.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up" she chanted in a scream with each punch she threw at his head.

"And a screamer as well, I think I hit the jackpot here!" he exclaimed madly.

"Hold still so I can rip your tongue out!" Temari screamed.

"Now, now Temari, you don't want to do anything too hastily, you might find that you enjoy my tongue later on" he said with a perverted smile.

Temari's violent onslaught stopped. She sat there with the brightest blush she had ever had; Hinata was now officially sitting in second place. She also noticed the somewhat provocative position they were currently lying in; with a much too girly shriek, she leapt off and away from Shukaku, who was still grinning like a lunatic.

"Why must you be so perverted?" she asked.

"I wasn't being serious, jeez, learn to take a joke. It's not like I'm gunna do anything, you're only like what, 16 years old or so," he said casually.

"I'll be 17 soon" she replied quickly.

"Exactly my point, if you're still interested when you turn 18, then I might be persuaded" he said with another perverted smile.

"I'm not even interested now!" she yelled.

"Sure, sure; whatever you say. But all joking aside, would you happen to know a guy with silver hair and a large three bladed scythe?" he asked.

"Um, no, why?" she asked.

"No real reason, but there is a guy of that description standing behind you" he answered casually while pointing behind her.

Temari spun around quickly and got into a defensive stance.

"Aww, come on man, I was gunna wait right until she forgave you, then slice her clean in half; once I was done with her I was going to kill you, but now you've ruined my plans!" exclaimed the scythe wielding man as he walked up to Temari and Shukaku.

"And who exactly, might you be?" asked Shukaku.

"Oh right, where are my manners. My name is Hidan; I'll be your executioner today, so if you don't mind, would you kindly sign your names in blood on my scythe here!" he said with an obviously psychotic tone, as he held up the three bladed weapon.

Temari sighed, something she found herself doing repeatedly since Shukaku had been freed; something just always had to go wrong when he was around, this was no exception.


	9. Chapter 9

Authors Notes:

Well people here is the next chapter. I'm sorry if it isn't of acceptable quality, i wasn't in a particularly good mind frame while writing it. None the less i hope it doesn't dissuade any of my readers, i am working on a better chapter as you're reading this.

Yet again i am left awaiting the dreaded bad review, i am really looking forward to its arrival. But until then i am happy with the positive ones, if anyone has any questions then please comment or message them to me, i will also gladly take any suggestions for things regarding this story.

Message to the readers: I am going to attempt another Naruto fanfiction but i am somewhat lacking in the idea's department, therefor, i ask you, the readers, to comment or message me any story idea's that you believe i may be able to write in a reasonable fashion. It is also entirely possible that i could use multiple idea's given to me, but i will reference any and all who send me the idea's.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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><p>Temari dodged yet another horizontal slice from the three bladed scythe, something she had been doing repeatedly since Hidan started to attack. She was curious as to why the clearly insane man would just randomly attack her, without so much as a second glance at Shukaku. She was also extremely pissed off at Shukaku's lack of action; he had not moved since the fight started, Temari was wondering if he was just waiting to see her die or assessing her skills somehow.<p>

She quickly rolled out of the way of a downward slash that left the bladed weapon stuck in the ground. Using this brief pause in the attack, Temari lunged forward and delivered a chakra enhanced kick into the side of Hidan's head; this was followed quickly by a sickening crack sound as his neck snapped from the force. She smiled in both relief and victory, before she was forced to dodge a short spike aimed for her heart.

"You bitch! You broke my fucking neck," yelled Hidan.

Temari's eyes widened in both shock and a hint of morbid curiosity; she watched as the silver haired man stood up and calmly snapped his neck back into place, before ripping his scythe from the ground. He pointed the metal spike, which Temari still did not know where he got from, directly at her and smiled an insane smile. He reared his right arm back and threw his scythe at her with incredible speed, claiming some minor control over the weapons movement via a long cable that extended from his sleeve to the scythes staff.

This time however, Temari didn't have time to dodge, so she put her arms out protectively and waited for some form of pain. After she felt nothing happen for a few seconds, Temari opened her eyes. A sigh of relief escaped her as she saw the small wall of sand that had caught the scythe midair; it was good to know that Shukaku wasn't just sitting back lazily.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't a broken neck be enough to kill any human?" Shukaku asked with his trademark tilt of his head.

"Hah, you can try as many times as you want, you'll never be able to kill me!" exclaimed Hidan.

The psychotic purple-eyed man pulled hard on the cable attached to the scythe, in an attempt to retrieve the weapon, only it didn't move an inch. The wall of sand that had blocked the weapon had also wrapped around the blades with a strong grip, Hidan couldn't so much as budge the bladed staff from where it was.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, heathen? Give me back my scythe!" he exclaimed while tugging on the cable in a childish way, reminding Temari of a little kid who was fighting over a lost toy.

"And why would I do that? As long as you don't have this thing, you're about as harmless as a regular human; even Temari is a bigger threat than you" stated Shukaku while observing the unique weapon. "I will say this though, it is a nice scythe; I think I'll keep it once you're dead" he added.

Hidan's eyes narrowed in rage. "Don't you fucking dare touch my scythe, a holy weapon of Jashin should never be handled by a pathetic heathen," he screamed hatefully.

In an instant, Hidan had stopped trying to pull his scythe back to him, and had instead decided to charge straight at Shukaku with his spike in hand. He sprinted at his scythe with barely contained rage that was only further fuelled by his insanity. As soon as he got within 10 feet of Shukaku and Temari, three long spears of solid sand shot out of the ground and skewered him, stopping him dead and holding him three feet off the ground.

Temari was glad that he was finally dead; even if she had only known him a short time, that short time was enough to learn to hate him. If it weren't for the fact that he was trying to kill her, then it would have been for the fact that his insanity reminded her of Shukaku, only far more violent. Gurgled coughing interrupted her thoughts. Looking back at Hidan, she noticed with some irritation that he was still alive.

"That hurt, you bastard!" he spat hatefully at Shukaku. "I'm gunna enjoy sacrificing you to lord Jashin, and the little whore too!" he yelled.

Shukaku, for once, was speechless. Never before in his extremely long life, had he met a human who wouldn't die. It was an oddity, an abomination of Kami's world, and he would enjoy ridding the world of such a thing. _'After I find out what makes him tick of course' _he added mentally, a vicious and twisted smirk gracing his previously calm features.

He dropped his arm, which had been extended forward, and with it so did the sand spears. Hidan fell to the ground in a bloody heap, before quickly jumping to his feet and sprinting straight at Shukaku. He didn't get much further than the first time before he was hit by a strong gust of wind, and then he exploded into a shower of blood.

Once the small fountain of blood cleared, it revealed Hidan kneeling on the ground panting heavily. He was covered in millions of small cuts that were all deep enough to cause copious amounts of bleeding; amongst the pool of his blood was at least one finger that had been lost in the attack. Shukaku tilted his head in curiosity while looking at his hand, as if it had done something wrong.

During this, Temari's eyes had once again widened, an action that had been repeated a few too many times for one day. She was astounded by the raw amount of damage that Shukaku had managed to create with a seemingly weak attack; she was fully aware of the capabilities of wind elemental attacks, but this was a little extreme.

"That's odd, you must be highly resistant to elemental chakra based attacks; those wind blades should have shredded you like mincemeat" stated Shukaku in slight confusion.

Temari almost had a heart attack; that attack was supposed to do _more _damage? Just what the fuck was Shukaku truly capable of. She shuddered at the few memories she had of when he had released what she assumed was a large amount of his power, what would that power be like if he channeled it into a form of destruction.

"Yeah…well that…fucking hurt…you bastard," replied Hidan between each pained and gurgled breath.

"Why would you say that, I attacked you with the sole purpose of hurting you, killing you in fact, so why would you tell me that it hurt? Are you retarded or something?" asked Shukaku.

"Shut up heathen…I'll sacrifice you to lord Jashin soon enough…just as soon as I can move" answered Hidan.

"Am I missing something here?" asked Temari. "Can't you just crush this guy and be done with it?" she added with a confused glare.

"It's not that simple, fan girl" answered Shukaku. "He isn't just going to die, and I want his scythe; therefor, a battle must be held to determine the winner through honor and skill" he stated seriously.

"You just really want to fight him don't you?" she asked plainly.

"I really, really do!" he exclaimed childishly. "Please don't make me destroy him without having some fun first; if you do I'll convince Gaara to stick you on guard duty"

"Oh please, you couldn't even get Gaara to stop eating ramen when you were explaining to him that you were taking me away for a few days, although I am upset that he would so easily send me off with you" she replied casually.

"I'll tell Kankuro where you keep all your girly magazines," he said with a grin.

"How do you know about those?" she asked dangerously.

"Well it's not like they're hidden very well, under your bed is that lamest place to hide things, and even I know that and I've never owned a bed"

"Why were you looking under my bed!" she yelled.

"I was trying to find something to blackmail you with, so far I was successful," he answered.

"Would you two shut up already, your lovers spat is starting to piss me off!" yelled Hidan, who had already healed and was once again trying to pull his scythe from the sand.

"Hey, if I wanted your opinion I would have asked, until I do so, shut the fuck up!" screamed Temari. "And if you so much as think of us as lovers again I'll castrate you until it stays castrated" she threatened.

For the first time in his not so long life, Hidan gulped in fear. He knew he couldn't die, but castration was something no man would risk. Once she was reasonably confident that Hidan was not about to interrupt again, Temari turned back to Shukaku and kicked him between his legs. He collapsed to his knees with a grunt of agony, he would have screamed but the pain exceeded what was plausible for a scream.

Hidan had stopped trying to pull his scythe out of the sand and grabbed his tenders protectively; even he would not dare put another man through such torture. He looked fearfully at Temari, whoever this girl was, she was evil, pure, unrelenting evil. For a brief moment Hidan considered running.

"If you ever go looking through my stuff again, I'll cut your pride and joy clean off," Temari threatened.

"I understand, I won't do it again, just please, for the love of Kami, don't ever kick me there again," he pleaded pathetically.

"Hey, whatever your name is, my sympathy is with you man," yelled Hidan. He may have been a psychopathic murderer, but even he knew when he had gone too far, this Temari girl apparently didn't have a freaking clue.

"So what are you going to do Shukaku?" she asked.

"I'm going to crush this guy like a bug and begin your training immediately?" he questioned hopefully.

"That's a good boy" she praised him, giving him a pat on the head like a dog.

"Who the fuck are you people?" asked Hidan with a dumbstruck expression.

"Oh where are our manners" began Temari. "I am Temari, jonin ranked shinobi of Sunagakure and sister to the current Kazekage. My friend here, is Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki and currently acting as my teacher" she stated calmly.

"Did you just say the Ichibi no Tanuki?" asked Hidan with wide eyes. "I thought that thing was supposed to be sealed"

"I was sealed, but about a week ago I was unintentionally released; I would tell you the exact date but this story isn't very well pieced together in terms of days," replied Shukaku.

"What do you mean 'this story'?" asked Temari.

"I'm trying to break the fourth wall, I've always been curious about its existence, I just never tried to actually breach it before" he said calmly.

Temari just stared at Shukaku, and stared, and stared; then she stared some more. She knew he was insane, he had told her so himself, but this was an entirely new level of messed up. Did he honestly think that their world existed within a story? Was it possible for someone to actually be that insane?

Hidan was having much the same reaction as Temari; only he had more reasons to do so. Standing, or rather kneeling in pain, was the Ichibi no Tanuki, one of the nine Bijuu. He had never feared being killed by anything, death would be a welcome escape for him, but being in the presence of one of the few beings he believed could actually accomplish such a task, was humbling to say the least.

"Can we get back to the killing yet?" he asked politely.

Temari and Shukaku looked at him, and then at each other. Temari gave Shukaku a nod of approval and took a step away from the Bijuu. Hidan smirked and prepared to sprint forward in another head on attack, but before he could take a step sand exploded all around him. The sand shot forward and engulfed Hidan completely.

After a few seconds, there wasn't a trace of Hidan ever being there, except for his scythe, which was quickly collected by Shukaku.

"You're not seriously taking that thing are you?" asked Temari.

"Of course I am, this thing is awesome, imagine how many people I could scare with this thing strapped to my back," he answered as he twirled the bladed weapon around like a bo-staff.

"Would it kill you to act seriously about something?"

"I don't know, maybe. And I'm warning you right now, if you force me to take something seriously and it does kill me, then when I reform I will personally shave your head," he threatened playfully.

"Yeah, yeah, same old threat, same useless words" she said.

"Alright, I'm gunna go back to trying to break the fourth wall, you can do whatever you want for a little while" said Shukaku.

"Yes well good luck with that, you psycho nut job" Temari said casually as she walked away.

As soon as she had walked far enough away, Shukaku stopped twirling the scythe around and looked straight up to the sky.

"You're a fuckwit," he said to no one in particular.

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><p>Temari had to actively stop herself from laughing hysterically at Shukaku's appearance. By some divine miracle, despite his natural black and grey hair, he was now sporting a head full of bright pink hair. It wouldn't have quite so funny if he hadn't been spending the last hour trying to furiously scrub the colour from his head.<p>

"How exactly did this even happen?" she asked with a ridiculously happy smile.

Shukaku stopped in his persistent scrubbing to give Temari a hateful scowl. "The fourth wall must never be crossed again, beyond it lies nothing more than mindless assholes who would do anything for a cheap laugh, hence my new hair colour," he said angrily.

"So will you begin training me yet?" she asked hopefully.

"Fine, but you're not going to like it," he said calmly.

"It doesn't matter, I'll do whatever it takes to get stronger," she said with conviction.

"Everyone always says the same thing, but as soon as the training starts they get pissed and demand a shortcut"

"I won't be like that"

"They said that too"

"Well I'm being serious"

"They also said that"

Temari gave up with a huff; there was only so far she could go with a pointless argument, she suspected that Shukaku would just drag it on for as long as possible. She wasn't too sure how good the patience of an insane Bijuu was, but she knew that he would go through hell and back if it meant pissing her off.

That reminded her of something she had asked herself during his fight with Hidan; just what was Shukaku capable of? Temari had a basic idea of how powerful the Bijuu were, but that was always in the terms of them being sealed within someone. As things stood now, Shukaku could be impossibly more powerful than what he was letting her see; it frightened her slightly to think about how much power he could actually possess, and what would happen should he decide to become destructive.

"Ok, let's go get this over with. Since that crazy scythe guy decided to interrupt us, and my hair chose to become florescent pink, we have a day left to get you started on the basics," explained Shukaku as he led Temari across the oasis.

They stopped right infront of a large boulder, and after a quick inspection from Shukaku, he turned to face her.

"I want you to split this boulder perfectly in half"

Temari smirked, "That'll be easy," she said confidently.

"With only your chakra, no affinity chakra, no wind blades, just you and your chakra" he added.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" she asked.

"Do you remember the seal I put on your stomach?"

"Of course I do, I still need to get you back for how much that hurt"

"Yes, well anyway, that seal is keeping your chakra gates open, meaning that you can only access the chakra flowing through your gates, no more using your internal chakra" he explained. "Since your natural affinity is for wind, it would stand to reason that your chakra is also of a wind nature. The only reason you people need to force your chakra to take the form of an element is because you use your internal chakra, which by default is neutral"

"So what, are you trying to tell me that my chakra is already set to wind?" she asked skeptically.

"Exactly, all you have to do is learn to control it, later on you might even figure out how to add another element, but that can wait for now" he said happily. "Right now, I want you to use your chakra to slice this here boulder in half, once you can do that ill teach you something really cool"

Temari was a little skeptical about the idea of her chakra already being in its elemental form, but she figured that weirder things were already possible, a Bijuu being sealed for instance. Therefore, without any argument, she walked over to the boulder; looking inside herself, she could feel her new chakra. It was much the same as the chakra she was used to, only now there was much, much more of it, all flowing so much smoother and quickly through her body.

The power of her new chakra also surprised her. Although it was flowing calmly, she could tell that it was prepared to explode in an instant, like a gentle breeze that would turn into a hurricane at the slightest chance it got. Reaching for it, Temari found that this chakra reacted far more to her commands than her internal chakra, it practically tried to get a head start on what she wanted it to do.

She put her hand flat against the cold surface of the boulder, and without hesitation, allowed her chakra to explode forward. The raw force behind the release shocked Temari; she hadn't put very much chakra into it, and yet it felt as powerful as one of her strongest wind attacks. Temari also noted how fast her chakra was able to refill the small amount she had used.

Looking at the boulder, she was amazed to see that it had been sliced clean in half, along with everything 20 feet behind it. Temari looked over at Shukaku to see his reaction, only to find him studying a rock.

"Catch" he said quickly while throwing the small rock at her.

Temari caught the rock easily and gave him a confused glare; it was the kind of look that demanded an explanation. Shukaku replied with a grin before pointing to the small amount of chaos left over from her attempt of slicing the boulder.

"That is what will happen until you regain your chakra control" he began. "Since the chakra you're using now is so much more potent, and also possesses a natural elemental form, it will be far more difficult to maintain. Wind, in its natural form, is a highly unstable yet calm element. It has the capacity for gentleness, but can easily turn mountains to rubble if required," he explained.

"You have an affinity for wind, meaning that while your chakra is within your body, it is calm and easily guided to a task. It remains pressurized within your chakra coils, but as soon as you give it an opening, your chakra as a whole will rush towards it in an attempt to escape. You were able to separate some chakra from your reserves to use for the task, which is smart, but if you hadn't you could have easily overdone it and killed yourself"

"So I have to practice chakra control all over again?" Temari whined.

"Of course not, you just have to learn how to keep control over all of your chakra at the same time; it will act as a single unit so you must treat it as such. If you do not learn to do this, then you are likely to put too much power into anything you do"

"This is going to give me a headache. Why must you make everything sound like a lecture?" she whined.

"Fine, think of it like this; your internal chakra required you to actually make it perform what you wanted it to, the chakra you're using now will actively try to do it as a whole. There is no holding back like with internal chakra; it's not meant to stay in your body, it's meant to be used. Therefore, never try to make it do something, don't treat it as something you can simply control. When using your chakra, try to control all of it at once and release small amounts from your control," he explained.

"What exactly would happen if I released it all at once?" Temari asked.

"With the amount of chakra you have, it's possible that you could make one of the largest windstorms ever known. But I could still do so much worse" he answered.

"Ok, I think I get it now; is there anything else I should know?"

"Ah, yes, be careful when you infuse your chakra into any items or into your own body for support. Having a wind affinity, your chakra will try to add a sharp edge to almost anything it can while also making it lighter and faster; if you infuse it into your body it will make you unbelievably fast, but your physical strength will suffer" he explained. "It's also completely possible for you to accidently turn yourself into a human wind sword capable of running straight through almost anything, but I wouldn't get my hopes up on that one"

"So why am I holding a rock?" she asked him.

"You are going to carve that there rock into a perfectly smooth sphere, then, using your chakra, I want you to hollow it out just as smoothly as you carved it. By doing this, you'll not only learn to control your chakra better, but you'll also be able to carve cool things when you're bored," he said cheerfully.

Temari sighed before concentrating on the fist-sized rock in her hand. She quickly tried to manipulate her chakra to carve it, only for the rock to explode into a bunch of tiny little pieces. This was followed by a chuckle from Shukaku who was sitting on the ground watching an army of ants collect things.

She sent him scowl and picked up another rock, trying to carve it quickly, only to have it also explode into a bunch of little pieces. She hung her head in defeat; this was going to take forever.


	10. Chapter 10

Authors Notes:

The next chapter is here, i hope you guys enjoy. I'm still waiting for a bad review, not too sure why i haven't gotten one yet but I'm not going to complain.

I haven't received any suggestions for this story, nor have i gotten any idea's for a possible other Naruto fanfic. I do hope that i will receive some eventually and i want to note that credit will be given where credit is due for those who do send me idea's.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am i connected to the person who does.

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><p>Gaara stared at Shukaku with what could have been interpreted as a raised eyebrow; funny thing was that Gaara didn't have eyebrows. His gaze moved slowly from the Bijuu to his sister, who was slung over Shukaku's shoulder unconscious. Most people would be somewhat concerned about having their sister brought home from a three-day training trip with a demon unconscious, but Gaara was a unique case when it came to emotional reactions to such things.<p>

Shukaku chuckled nervously and scratched his shoulder, an action that caused him to accidently grab Temari's ass. At this, both of Gaara's non-existent eyebrows rose causing Shukaku to chuckle a little more; it didn't help that Temari decided to moan in her sleep, he wasn't responsible for whatever she was dreaming about and no one could prove otherwise.

"Should I be concerned about what may of happened while you were away?" asked Gaara before he slurped a mouthful of ramen from the bowl.

Shukaku made a note to kill that Naruto brat whenever he got a chance to do so, he wouldn't let his jinchuuriki eat that stuff while he was sealed and he would be long dead before he let the boy eat it now. Unfortunately, he had to clear his name and make sure that no one made any wild assumptions about him and Temari, it was already bad enough that people had seen him carry her through the village.

"Nothing happened, I opened her gates, put the seal on her, and showed her how to get better, just like I promised you" he said quickly.

Gaara's eyes looked down at the blood red, three bladed scythe that Shukaku had leant against a wall. Looking back at the demon tanuki with a questioning gaze, he gestured to the unique weapon.

"And where did you acquire the scythe?" he asked calmly.

"We ran into some crazy guy that tried to kill us, oddly enough the man couldn't die, so I buried him in the desert, we shouldn't be seeing him for quite a few years" explained Shukaku with a frown; he had really wanted to fight Hidan, but Temari had kicked him in the unmentionables.

"Is there any reason why you have not put my sister down on a chair yet, perhaps you are enjoying holding her a little too much" said Gaara with a childish smirk.

"What the hell do you think you're insinuating boy?" asked Shukaku; he was really starting to hate how Gaara was getting his emotions back.

"I'm not insinuating anything, I'm merely asking whether or not you are involved with my sister; if you are I have no problems, so long as she understands your situation and the situation it will put her in" answered Gaara, his smirk growing slightly as he slurped yet another mouthful of ramen.

"You know that if she was awake right now you'd be getting your ass kicked by an angry teenage girl, must I inform you of what such a situation entails?" asked Shukaku.

Gaara cringed at the memories of Kankuro going through such an experience; he knew that it was something to be avoided at all costs. He had also noticed the slight limp that Shukaku had been walking with when he entered his office; the demon tanuki had his sympathy.

"No, I understand completely, I see you do as well" Gaara replied while gesturing to Shukaku's limp. "You can take Temari home now, I hope nothing else _unexpected_ happens when you get there" he added with his smirk returning full blast.

"I really shouldn't have let you people know that I wasn't a psychotic murderer, its almost impossible to get any respect now" whined Shukaku.

"True, but keep in mind that you may wish to keep your interaction with my sister a secret from Kankuro, he might not be as accepting as I am" said Gaara as he tried to contain his amusement on Shukaku's behalf.

Shukaku didn't even say anything back, instead offering an unintelligible groan of annoyance as a response. He repositioned Temari on his shoulder, accidentally grabbing her ass again, which earned a childish smile from Gaara; he grabbed his new scythe and walked to the door, stopping at the doorway and giving one more confused look towards Gaara.

"Gaara, can I ask you something?"

"You may"

"Why are you wearing the racoon onesie in your office, more importantly, why have you drawn whisker marks on your face?" Shukaku asked worriedly.

"That is none of your concern, now be gone," Gaara commanded calmly.

Shukaku just nodded slowly and closed the door quietly.

Temari woke up to the slow and steady rise and fall of her pillow, a pillow that had not only become much larger than she remembered but had also gotten much more solid and warm. She wrapped her arms tightly around it and cuddled up as close as she could, not even realising that she had never owned a body length pillow.

It wasn't until her pillow groaned and moved by itself that she realised it wasn't a pillow. Sitting up suddenly, she almost fell off of her bed, reaching out she managed to grab the 'pillow' and keep herself upright.

"Matatabi, I told you I would build you a sand castle later" mumbled what Temari now realised was Shukaku.

A few moments passed and Temari managed to process a few things through her mind, not all of which were good. For one, she was home safely and in her own bed, the only problem being that Shukaku was also in her bed with her. She also noticed with no small amount of embarrassment that both her and Shukaku were only in their underwear, something that once again ranked her at number one on the blush scoreboard.

She sat quietly on her bed for a few minutes praying to Kami that nothing had happened between her and Shukaku; she knew that nothing had gone too far since they weren't completely naked, but anything leading up to this could easily be a bad thing. Temari looked over at Shukaku, who was still fast asleep. She hated to admit it, but he was somewhat cute when he was asleep; Temari could only hope that his nose would start twitching again, she really needed a good laugh to distract her.

Eventually she realised nothing was going to happen and tried to figure out what to do. She could sneak out of the room and leave Shukaku to figure out how he got here on his own, but knowing him he would use this to tease her endlessly. She couldn't wake him up since it would just put her in an awkward situation, and she would be damned if she was going to just lie back down and pretend like she was never awake.

"Temari…why am I in your bed half naked?" asked Shukaku.

Looking back up at him, Temari saw that he was now awake and had his eyes wide in both confusion and slight fear. From what she could see, he looked just about ready to dive off of the bed and run for his life.

"I was going to ask you the same question" she replied calmly.

"I don't know, I brought you home and put you up here before I fell asleep on the couch" he said just as calmly.

"And you expect me to believe that you weren't the one to bring me home and strip me before climbing into bed with me" she said accusingly.

"I swear I had nothing to do with this, Gaara was the one making assumptions about us" he replied quickly.

Temari and Shukaku stopped and gave each other knowing look.

"It was Gaara wasn't it?" Shukaku asked lazily.

"Yep" Temari answered simply.

"Are we going to kill him?"

"Most likely"

"Lets go"

Kankuro took a deep relaxing breath as he walked back through the gates of Sunagakure. He had only been gone a couple of days, but it had felt like an eternity to him. He knew Gaara would be happy that the negotiations with Konohagakure were going well, and he was more than a little curious about how Shukaku was coping under Temari's control.

"Kankuro?" asked a voice.

He turned to see who asked the question, but as soon as he had turned the wind was knocked out of him as something slammed into his stomach. Looking down, he was greeted by a young girl with brown hair who was smiling like a mad person.

"Matsuri?" he asked with a pained cough.

"You betcha!" exclaimed the young girl.

"What are you doing here?" Kankuro asked.

"I just got back from a mission with my team, we've been gone for nearly three weeks," she said cheerfully. "Hey, do you know if anything interesting has happened while I've been gone, I hope Gaara's ok, I hate seeing him held up in that little office doing paperwork"

"Well actually, now that you mention it, something interesting did happen. You see, about a week ago, Gaara's se…" he began to say before he stopped and got a panicked look on his face.

He turned nervously to Matsuri who was waiting patiently with an expectant smile. "You really don't have a clue what happened over the past two weeks?" he asked hesitantly.

"No, why, did something bad happen? Is Gaara ok?" she asked frantically.

"Settle down, Gaara is perfectly ok, I think; although I have been concerned ever since the whole racoon king incident," Kankuro said calmly.

"Well what are you waiting for, take me to see Gaara, I need to make sure he's alright!" exclaimed Matsuri as she dragged him by the arm down the street.

They didn't get far when a large explosion rocked the ground, followed by a high pitched scream with yet another explosion. Matsuri stopped dragging Kankuro just in time to miss being hit by a person who had been thrown through a building and into the one across the street from them.

Shortly after the person had disappeared into the now partially destroyed building they had been thrown into, the building exploded into a huge construct of sand; standing at the top was a boy with black and grey hair, wearing a long sand coloured coat.

"Get your ass back here Gaara, I'm gunna make you wish I had killed you earlier. That missing arm will be the least of your worries!" yelled Shukaku in fury before the sand construct burst forward with him on top.

Another large explosion rocked the street, three more buildings were destroyed, only this time they exploded into little nicely cut pieces. From the rubble, walked a clearly furious Temari who was holding her battle fan in one hand and her mother's fan in the other. With a violent swing of her fans, she was able to create a rather large tornado that began tearing through the village, with her riding on top of it.

"You'll never catch me alive!" screamed a voice.

From the roof of one of the few remaining buildings, jumped Gaara, whom was still clad in his racoon onesie, with whisker marks drawn on his face; it also didn't help that he currently wasn't maintaining his replacement arm of sand, and was holding a bowl of ramen his hand.

Kankuro watched on in silent horror; he knew things may have gotten out of control, but this was beyond expectations. Matsuri also watched on in a silent daze, before she slowly turned to Kankuro and stared at him emotionlessly.

"Kankuro?" she asked calmly.

"Yes?" he replied worriedly.

"Did you see Gaara with whiskers? And that little racoon onesie was so cute!" she squealed with a fangirl gleam in her eyes.

"Really? Out of everything that just happened, you only took that out of it. Perhaps you need to go to the hospital," said Kankuro with a blank expression.

"Hey, who was that other guy that could control sand, I thought only Gaara could do that," asked Matsuri.

Kankuro paled slightly and sighed in defeat. "I think you should sit down for this," he said tiredly.

* * *

><p>Matsuri sat silently with wide eyes; her jaw had dropped to the ground shortly after Kankuro had started explaining what he knew. She had to admit, from what she had been told the past few weeks had been extremely eventful.<p>

"So that guy was…"

"Yep"

"And Gaara really lost his…"

"Yep"

"And Temari has to…"

"Yep"

Matsuri took a deep breath and gave an amazed whistle. "Things really got out of control," she said.

"Yeah, they really did, but I have no idea what is going on now," replied Kankuro.

"Should we go and check on them?" she asked.

"Definitely not, they can handle themselves, I hope. I'll take you to my house and we can wait for them to get back," he said as he stood up and began walking.

Matsuri shrugged her shoulders and followed quickly after him. She was going to need a drink at some point to help deal with everything.

* * *

><p>Temari and Shukaku glared at Gaara, said individual was sitting on the other side of the table slurping away at yet another bowl of ramen; Kankuro and Matsuri were sitting nervously off to the side. No one moved, the last 20 minutes had been nothing but a silent battle, with Shukaku and Temari trying to ignite Gaara with naught but their glares.<p>

"Would anyone care to explain why there was some kind of grudge match that destroyed two streets?" asked Kankuro.

"The brat crossed a line," Shukaku answered vaguely.

"He stripped me and Shukaku and put us together in my bed," explained Temari, never once easing up on her glare.

"I don't know what they're talking about Kankuro, they've been acting strangely ever since Shukaku took Temari out into the desert for three days," Gaara said quickly with a smug smile.

A black blur jumped leapt over the table and tackled Shukaku to the ground.

"You touched my sister inappropriately didn't you, you bastard!" screamed Kankuro.

"I didn't touch anything, I accidently grabbed her ass and that was it," yelled Shukaku.

"You grabbed my ass?" yelled Temari as she jumped into the scuffle and helped her brother hurt Shukaku.

"Gaara I am going to kill you for this!" screamed Shukaku.

"Everybody shut up!" screamed Matsuri.

In a truly odd turn of events, everyone did in fact shut up. The scuffle was ended almost immediately and everyone was seated quietly back at the table; the only sign that anything had happened was the small trickle of blood flowing from Shukaku's nose.

"Good. Now can you guys please just act somewhat normal for a minute?" she asked.

"No" said Gaara.

"Doubtful" replied Kankuro.

"No can do," answered Shukaku.

"I'd rather not," stated Temari bluntly.

Matsuri slammed her fist down on the table and glared at all of them. "If you guys want to leave this room without broken bones then you damn well better start behaving," she said through gritted teeth.

"I take offense to this, I am one of the nine Bijuu, I demand I be treated with respect!" exclaimed Shukaku.

"Sit down and shut up!" snapped Temari.

"Yes ma'am" he said submissively as he sat back down.

"Already bowing down to her will, eh Shukaku. Next thing you know we will be planning a wedding" said Gaara with an amused smile.

"Wait, you guys are actually together?" asked Matsuri with love hearts in her eyes.

"NO!" yelled Temari.

"Absolutely fucking not!" exclaimed Shukaku.

The room fell into a tense silence and Shukaku began to feel as if he had said something wrong. He glanced around and saw that everyone was looking worriedly at Temari, turning to look at her he was met with a glare the likes he had never seen before.

"What do you mean 'absolutely fucking not'?" she asked dangerously. "Are you suddenly too good for me or something"

Shukaku gave her a blank stare. "Are you really going to do this, even after everything we've already been through" he asked bluntly.

Temari went to reply but stopped suddenly and blushed slightly. She quietly sat back down and returned to looking at everyone else. "Shall we change the subject now?" she asked quietly.

"Aww, you guys are so cute!" squealed Matsuri.

"Temari, I know I don't her, but can I kill her anyway?" asked Shukaku.

"Way ahead of you" she answered as she snapped open her mother's fan.

The two lunged over the table and began frantically chasing after Matsuri, who was now giggling like a mad schoolgirl. Barely 10 minutes passed and everyone found themselves sitting back at the table; Shukaku was supported up against Temari, who was in turn leaning herself against him, Matsuri was standing next to an amused Gaara with a smug smirk adorning her lips.

"Such a feisty couple you two are" said Gaara.

Shukaku groaned in pain and rested his head on Temari's shoulder; she didn't even have the energy to hit him for it. "Temari, whatever that girl is, it's not normal, we have to kill it," he groaned.

"Agreed," she muttered.

"Is everyone in this house, besides me, a complete lunatic?" asked Kankuro.

Everyone but Shukaku, who was still using Temari's shoulder as a pillow, turned to look at him with a blank stare.

"Yes" they all said in unison.

A short silence filled the room before Gaara cleared his throat. "Perhaps it would be best if we discuss a more pressing matter," he said calmly.

"In four days' time, Sunagakure will be hosting the chunin exams. Kankuro's recent mission was to not only update the trade agreements with Konohagakure, but also to record the number of genin teams that will be coming here for the exams. As it stands, we will have three teams from Konohagakure, two from Kumogakure, and one team from Iwagakure," he explained.

"Wait, we're allowing Iwa into the exams. Gaara, what if they try something against Konoha, or worse yet, what if they try to capture Shukaku; I wouldn't put it past the Tsuchikage to try and grab more power, and Shukaku is an unsealed Bijuu. Every other major village will see him as free game, even some of the minor villages may join into the fray," said Temari.

"While it's sweet and all that you care so much about me, now that I am in fact unsealed, it would be a cold day in hell before any of those villages could capture me," said Shukaku.

"Oh really, then how were captured in the first place" she retorted.

Shukaku glared at Temari and released a suffocating amount of KI into the room. "There were very unfortunate circumstances involved that day, you would do well not to mention it again," he said darkly.

It took a few minutes for the KI to completely disappear, but no one dared to mention Shukaku's capture around him again.

"I have to agree with Shukaku" began Gaara. "While he is unsealed, his power is exponentially greater than what we know. So long as he remains within the desert of wind country he should be perfectly fine, but this does not mean we are not to keep an eye on the other villages," he said seriously.

"Once the other villages learn of us having a freed and cooperative Bijuu, chaos will more than likely ensue. I do not believe that anyone would be stupid enough to attack Shukaku head on, but I do fear that they may use something, or someone, as a way to get to him indirectly," he explained while looking at Temari.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" she asked nervously before looking at Shukaku.

"Hey don't look at me, I've got nothing to do with this," he said with hands up defensively.

"We believe that should anyone ask around the village for information, some of the not so kind villagers may hint at the closeness between you two due to the nature of the mission I gave Temari. Should they come to such a conclusion, it would be in their interests to capture Temari and use her against Shukaku; they would be under the assumption that you wouldn't be as likely to attack if it puts her in danger" explained Gaara.

"And why does it sound like this is just part of some big plan of yours?" Temari asked.

Gaara smiled mischievously. "Because it is part of a plan, one where you are the bait" he said happily.

"Don't you even think about putting our sister in danger, Gaara!" yelled Kankuro.

"What kind of game do you think you're playing here?" asked Shukaku.

"Don't worry, Temari won't really be the bait, that honour goes to Shukaku" replied Gaara with a truly evil gleam in his eyes, a wicked smile twitched ever so slightly at his lips.

"Why do I get the distinct feeling that I will want to kill you even more after this?" asked Shukaku with a glare.

"Gaara, what are you thinking?" asked Matsuri nervously.

Gaara chuckled darkly and smiled like an idiot. "Temari, Shukaku, would either of you mind pretending to be in a relationship?" he asked with no lack of amusement.


	11. Chapter 11

Authors Notes.

Here's the next chapter, i hope you enjoy. I wish to remind everyone to please leave a review and give any suggestions, they are much appreciated. Also if anyone has any story idea's they might want me to try and write i am more than happy to give it a go, keep in mind that unless i absolutely love the idea it will probably only be a short oneshot or something like that, but i will try my best.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if i did you would know.

* * *

><p>"I'm going to kill that brat!" exclaimed a female voice.<p>

"Oh stop complaining, you don't have it as bad as I do," replied an irritated male voice.

"Ugh, why is it so tight!" complained the female voice. "It feels like it's going to tear or something"

"It won't tear you cry-baby, it's designed to stretch. Maybe if you just ignored it, it wouldn't feel so uncomfortable," said the male voice.

"You don't know what this feels like!" yelled the female voice.

"What do you mean I don't know, it's tight for me too you know" retorted the male.

"That doesn't matter right now, where is that scythe, I'm cutting this thing off!" exclaimed the girl.

"Don't you dare cut that off, its mine, not yours" yelled the man.

"Whatever" muttered the girl. "How do you even use this thing properly, it's way too big" she whined.

"It's supposed to be big, that's the whole point. Maybe if you stopped whining about things being too tight, you wouldn't be so concerned with the size of it," replied the guy.

Kankuro stood at Temari's bedroom door with a blood red blush. He had almost knocked on the door when the rather loud chain of complaints began, and now he was thankful he hadn't interrupted. If what he thought was going on in there, was actually happening, then it was much safer on this side of the door.

"Why the hell did we agree to go along with this? Not only is it extremely uncomfortable, but we will never be able to look at each other the same way after this" said Temari.

"We agreed because Gaara said it would make the plan easier if we had experience prior to the actual plan," explained Shukaku.

"It's still too tight!" whined Temari.

"I told you it stretches, now hold still" said Shukaku.

"Ow, don't pull my hair!" she yelled.

"I wasn't pulling it, I was just trying to get a proper handful. Why are you acting like such a child?" he asked.

"Well I'm sorry but I've never had to do something like this before" she snapped.

"Neither have I so shut up!" he yelled.

It was at this moment that Kankuro decided that he had had enough. He kicked the door open and marched inside with the intention of kicking the shit out Shukaku for daring to deflower his sister. What he found inside was not what he was expecting in the slightest.

A clearly angry Temari was sitting on the floor, fidgeting and pulling at an obviously tight pair of shorts, as she held her battle fan in her free hand. Kneeling behind her with a handful of her hair, was a highly irritated Shukaku; he appeared to be in the process of tying Temari's hair into ponytails. Both of them glared at Kankuro before going back to what they were doing.

"What do you want Kankuro?" asked Shukaku.

"I'm sorry, I thought you guys were doing something else," he said nervously, the blush never quite leaving his face.

Both Temari and Shukaku looked at him curiously. "What did you think we were doing?" asked Temari.

"Um, well, with everything you guys were saying just now, I kinda thought that maybe, you two were, you know, doing something else" he said nervously.

Temari gave Kankuro Cheshire cat grin and a small laugh. "Oooh, I know what you were thinking, but unfortunately Temari has declined sexual favours" she said cheekily.

Shukaku finally caught on and blushed a deep shade of red that had only been seen on Temari or Hinata. He reared his arm back and punched Temari in the back of the head. "Pervert!" he yelled angrily.

Kankuro watched on in barely contained amusement; Gaara was an absolute genius to put these two under a henge seal. No one would ever expect Temari to actually be Shukaku, or vice versa. The only problem they seemed to be having, was Shukaku's constant complaining about being stuck in Temari's body.

"What kind of idiot hits themselves like that?" asked Temari.

"Only an idiot would think that you're actually me, so sit down and stop complaining about my clothes already," yelled Shukaku.

"I wouldn't be complaining if your clothes weren't so tight, do you own anything that doesn't feel like it's going to rip if I bend over" she asked in irritation.

"I've told you before and I'll tell you again, it's designed to stretch, it won't tear unless you tear it yourself" he replied.

"And what about this fan, can't I just use little ones, or perhaps just my natural wind chakra, this thing is too big to carry around for no reason" she said while waving said fan around like a toy.

"Gaara said we have to act like each other as best as we can, that means that you have to carry my fan around because it's what I would do," said Shukaku.

"Well then you have to carry my scythe around," said Temari.

"But that thing weighs a literal ton, you put gravity seals on it before you gave it to me and that's unfair" he whined.

"It's what I would do Temari, so hop to it" she replied.

"It's bad enough that Gaara put these seals on us and we're stuck as each other, but we also have to act like we're in a relationship. How the hell am I supposed to pretend to be you in a relationship, I'm not even sure if you would act any different than you normally do," said Shukaku.

"I wouldn't act any different, that's what makes your job so easy. The real question, is how am I supposed to act like some love struck teenage girl, the thought itself is disgusting" spat Temari.

"I would never act like a love struck teenage girl, so just act as I normally would and you'll be fine" he said.

"Gaara never expected you guys to act as if you were madly in love, just a few hugs and maybe a kiss or two in public should suffice" said Kankuro with a smirk.

Shukaku and Temari froze in shock; Shukaku paled and Temari grinned perversely.

"Now we're talking!" she exclaimed.

"Kankuro, please tell me you're joking, please" pleaded Shukaku.

"Sorry sis, but we have to make this seem at least a little real; if you guys do nothing but fight the whole time then people are gunna know that something is wrong" Kankuro explained.

Shukaku's head dropped and his shoulders slumped down. "My life is ruined," he muttered.

"I bring good news!" yelled Gaara as he ran into the room, for some reason he was still in his onesie.

"I don't have to kiss Shukaku?" Shukaku asked hopefully.

"Uh, no, that still has to happen at some point. I'm here to tell you that our original plan is being altered, you two no longer need to be each other, so the seals can come off now," Gaara explained cheerfully.

"Thank Kami!" yelled Temari before she burst into a small cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed the real Shukaku standing happily with his scythe already strapped to his back. He sighed in relief before walking over and poking the other Shukaku in the forehead, then he too burst into smoke. When it cleared, Temari was standing there rubbing her forehead with a scowl on her face.

"All that effort, for nothing" she muttered angrily.

"I wouldn't say it was for nothing, I may still require you two to act as each other at a later date so count this as practise," said Gaara with a grin.

"If you weren't my brother, I'd kill you for this," Temari said dangerously.

"Wait a minute, why don't we need to keep the henges; I thought the idea was for me to be Temari in case they try to take her hostage" asked Shukaku.

"Our original plan was factoring in the possibility of you two being separated, however, since you two are _acting _as a couple, it would stand to reason that you wouldn't leave each other's side anyway" Gaara said while putting emphasis on the word acting.

"Why did you put emphasis on "acting"?" asked Shukaku.

"Are you saying I have to stay with him for the entire chunin exams?" exclaimed Temari.

"Let's not get into details, instead, let's go get lunch, I need an excuse to stay away from my office for a little while" said Gaara before he ran out of the room.

* * *

><p>During their walk to the food court of the village, the small group had learnt a few interesting things; they had also managed to pick up Matsuri along the way and she just so happened to be walking extra close to Gaara. They had learnt that most of the people were actually happy with Gaara's sudden gaining of childish emotions, saying that it made him seem far more human than he once was; some were even happy that he was acting so childish because they felt he deserved to after his actual childhood.<p>

Another thing they had learnt was that most of the village was now privy to the knowledge of Temari being associated romantically with Shukaku, something that annoyed the both of them to no end. At the same time they were notified of the fact that most of the village was still against Shukaku being there, it showed with the glares that were being sent his way, and by extension, Temari's way. Gaara had told them that to really sell the part they would have to walk next to each other, something else that both detested.

As it turned out, a good portion of the village wasn't so negative towards Shukaku now that the news of his and Temari's "relationship" had become known. They figured that he couldn't be that evil if he had the capacity for love, and therefor left him be; but that didn't mean they wanted to interact with him.

Temari was starting to feel the true weight of the glares that were now being sent her way. Whenever she walked around the village with Shukaku before, the glares and disgusted looks were only directed at him. But now that they were in a "relationship", people felt the need to include her to the target list, and it was starting to really get to her. Was this how Shukaku felt all the time? Was this what Gaara had to grow up with for so many years?

"Don't let it get to you" Shukaku whispered to her. "After the chunin exams are over, things will go back to normal and everything will work out; once Gaara tells them the truth they'll forget all about this"

"Is this what Gaara felt like, is this what you are forced to live with?" she asked sadly.

She faltered in her step when Shukaku put his arm over her shoulders in a comforting manner. "Gaara used to feel much worse than you are now, and yes this is what I'm forced to live with; but unlike you and your brother, I already have centuries of experience in dealing with it" he answered with a gentle smile.

"Aww, aren't you guys just adorable" said Matsuri.

And just like that, the mood was killed.

"Can I kill her now?" whispered Shukaku.

"Wait until we're at lunch, I have a plan" Temari whispered back with a wicked smile.

After a few more minutes of silent walking, the group arrived at one of the more flashy restaurants in the village. They walked in and sat at a table without even saying a word, it seemed there were some obvious benefits of walking around with the Kazekage. The glares had stopped shortly after they had entered the establishment, but just when everyone thought that they were in the clear, the waiter walked over.

The man openly began to glare at Shukaku and Temari, even going so far as to give Temari a leering gaze that quickly turned to some form of disgust.

"Lord Kazekage, are you sure you wish to dine with such…people?" he asked while practically spitting venom on the word people.

To everyone's surprise, even Shukaku's, Gaara released a large amount of KI.

"And for what reasons would I not wish to dine with my sister?" he asked in his old monotone voice.

"Well…for one…she's with that…thing" the man managed to choke out.

"Leave" Gaara said blandly.

"What?" the waiter asked.

"I said leave, I will not be served by someone as narrow minded as you," he answered.

"I'm afraid to hear that Lord Kazekage, and I'm also afraid that I will have to ask you leave this establishment" the man said with authority.

"Are you kicking your Kazekage out of this restaurant?" asked Kankuro threateningly.

"I will not serve a Kazekage who would dine with monstrous things and whores. I thought you of all people would know how that thing corrupts people, I see now that I was mistaken" the man sneered.

"It's cool guys; I'll go eat somewhere else, see you when you get back home" said Shukaku with a smile as he got up and began walking out of the restaurant.

"Don't forget to take your whore" spat the waiter with a smug smirk on his face.

Shukaku paused mid step and spun on his heel. He calmly walked back up to the waiter and smiled kindly at the man. "And where shall I be picking up your wife today, sir?" he asked cheerfully.

The man's eyes narrowed angrily. "What are you getting at, demon?" he asked.

"Well you said that I shouldn't forget my whore, since I don't actually have one, I figured your wife would be a good substitute; is she not the village slut?" Shukaku asked with a smile.

Temari laughed openly at the waiters appalled expression, as did Matsuri; Gaara and Kankuro chuckled at Shukaku's wisecrack, but one could easily see that they were preparing to pummel the man for calling Temari a whore.

A sickening crack echoed through the mostly silent restaurant as the waiter punched Shukaku hard in the face, breaking the Ichibi's nose and few of his own fingers in the process. The waiter groaned in pain and cradled his broken hand as he stumbled back; Shukaku didn't make a sound as he regained his composure and snapped his nose back into place, an action that made both Temari and Matsuri flinch.

"I tried to take your derogatory comments in stride" Shukaku began. "I tried to ignore your insulting looks at Temari, I even tried to make a joke to let it all slide; but now you've pissed me off, and that just will not do"

He slowly walked towards the waiter, with each heavy-footed step his mad grin grew larger, the steady flow of blood from his nose making him look far more crazy than normal.

"Wait, you can't hurt me, ninja aren't allowed to attack civilians," the man said frantically.

"He isn't a ninja, and even if he was, demons don't bow to the rules of men," said Gaara emotionlessly.

The people walking past on the street screamed in shock when a beaten and bloody man was thrown through a wall and onto the street. Shukaku calmly walked out of the hole made in the wall, followed closely by the sand siblings and Matsuri.

"Do you feel better now?" asked Temari with a slight smile.

"Very much so" he answered happily.

"Perhaps we should return home before any more unfortunate accidents befall the villagers; I'm sure we can find some way to entertain ourselves" Gaara offered.

"I'll cook lunch!" exclaimed Matsuri.

Matsuri quickly grabbed Gaara's arm and dragged him off down the street with Kankuro following closely; Shukaku and Temari shared a look and shrugged before they too walked after the excited girl.

* * *

><p>The tension in the air was thick as everyone sat around the kitchen table, Temari glaring at Shukaku, Shukaku glaring at Gaara, Gaara smiling like an idiot, Kankuro glaring at Temari, and Matsuri staring dreamily at Gaara. None of them were blinking as they continued with their death-match of stares.<p>

Each of them held three cards in their hands, every few seconds one of them would rearrange the order in which they were held; eventually Gaara picked up a fourth card from the deck in the centre of the table and added it to his hand.

"8764" he said as he placed down the cards that made up the number he had called.

Matsuri was next and she quickly picked up a fourth card. "6652" she said while putting her cards on the table.

Kankuro took his card and smirked as he put them down. "8810" he said proudly.

Temari picked up her card and did a quick reshuffle of her hand before placing them down with a smirk. "9311" she said with amusement.

Everyone turned to Shukaku and looked at him expectantly, only to realise he had fallen asleep at some point over the past 5 minutes. Temari reached over and smacked him up the back of the head hard enough to make him slam his face into the table. He woke up with a pained groan before he sat back up and glared at Temari, to which she responded with a smile.

"I suppose it's my turn?" he asked lazily, to which everyone nodded.

He reached over and picked up his card before randomly adding it to his hand. Everyone knew it was random since his eyes had been closed after he picked up his fourth card. He hastily put down his cards and sighed, looking down he checked to see what he had.

"9743" he said lazily.

Everyone else at the table groaned in defeat and sat back awaiting Shukaku's decision. Shukaku sat back lazily and slowly looked from person to person, making them suffer in torment before revealing his ultimate decision. After a few agonising seconds of silent torture, he turned a leering gaze to Temari.

"Temari" he said with a stupid grin on his face. "Time to strip"

Temari sighed and stood up from her chair; she quickly removed her dark purple skirt and threw it to the side amongst a small pile of clothing pieces she had already removed. This pile included her ninja sandals, her headband, her grey over-top, and now her skirt, leaving her in nothing but her purple blouse and tight black shorts. As soon as the skirt hit the floor, she was sitting back down.

"Well that was boring," whined Shukaku.

"Can I just say something here" interjected Kankuro. "How is it, that when we are playing a strip game, Gaara is still fully clothed? He's wearing onesie for crying out loud, it only required one of us to win once. What the fuck happened?" he asked.

"I think I have an answer to that," replied Shukaku. "You see, everyone here had a specific motive during the game, therefor when we won, we only targeted specific people. Temari targeted me because she thinks I'm good looking, you targeted Matsuri because she's the only girl besides your sister, she targeted Gaara for obvious reasons, but she never won a game. Gaara wasn't targeting anyone since at the moment he's playing this game with the mentality of a seven year old, while I was targeting Temari for that ass," he said with a few slurs amongst his speech.

Everyone stared at Shukaku in minor shock as he sat there chuckling childishly, Temari was trying hard to fight down the slight blush on her cheeks.

"Shukaku, have you been drinking?" asked Gaara.

"Abso-fucking-lutely!" he exclaimed as he held up a large bottle of saké that he had pulled out of nowhere.

"Wait, there's saké and we're not drinking it?" asked Kankuro in shock, before he ran to one of the cupboards and pulled out several bottles. He placed a large assortment of alcoholic drinks on the table and collected all the playing cards before reshuffling them. "Ok, new game; whoever wins gets to choose someone to remove a piece of clothing, while all the losers have to take a shot of something" he said cheerfully.

"You have this very well planned out, I wonder why that is," Temari said with a pointed look at her brother.

Kankuro chuckled nervously. "Well you are often off training or on a mission, and Gaara is always held up in his office, so I needed something to do; therefor I hold card games here, and alcohol is usually a main factor," he explained.

Temari shrugged and grabbed one of the various bottles and sitting down. "Fair enough" she said.

The rest of the day was spent trying to get each other to strip until everything eventually boiled down to a major drinking contest between the five. Kankuro was the first to fall from the contest, leaving the remaining four to determine the ultimate winner. Gaara and Matsuri quickly forfeited and stayed around to see who would win; Gaara was betting on Shukaku while Matsuri bet on Temari.

"Are you sure it's even ok to let these two have a drinking contest?" asked Matsuri, she knew how competitive Temari was and she had been told about how stubborn Shukaku could be.

Gaara chuckled darkly and leant over to whisper something in Matsuri's ear. Her eyes widened in delight as an evil smile slowly formed. "That is brilliant, Lord Kazekage" she whispered back with a slightly seductive tone as she looked back to Temari and Shukaku, who both looked ready to pass out. Things were going to be very, very interesting tomorrow.


	12. Chapter 12

Authors Notes:

Here be the next chapter my faithful readers, i hope you enjoy. I'd like to also note, that this story has almost hit 1500 views, which is far more than i planned for, so thank you to all who have been following along with this fanfic.

I'd also like to point out to anyone who wishes to know, that there will be no actual sexual scenes within this story. There might be references and jokes about something of that nature happening, but the actual event will never be written by me. This is not because i am against such material, its simply because i do not trust myself to write anything like that in a way that would be in any form entertaining. Therefor, i offer my apologies to anyone who was hoping for such a thing.

I'd like to remind everyone to please leave a review on what you think about my story so far, along with any suggestions or short story ideas you wish for me to consider. Credit will be given where credit is due.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

><p>Temari woke up feeling dizzy and groggy, with a splitting headache throbbing through her head every few seconds. She couldn't remember most of last night, but she did remember Kankuro getting a lot of drinks from the cupboard. A pained groan escaped her as she tried to bury her face into her pillow, only to find that her pillow wasn't actually her pillow again.<p>

Sitting up slowly, she looked over and felt a sense of déjà vu. Shukaku was once again asleep in her bed, and both of them had yet again been stripped down to their underwear. Temari could smell the suffocating amount of alcohol on the both of them, which served to only make her hangover so much worse.

Despite the circumstances, she couldn't find the energy to do anything in terms of reacting to her and Shukaku's state of undress. She was still tired, and she knew that if she even attempted to walk, she would definitely fall. Therefore, without any real thought, Temari lied back down against Shukaku and rested her head on his chest. She didn't expect him to react and wrap his arms around her in his sleep, but she quickly found that it was quite comforting to be held.

She sighed quietly and prayed that no one walked into her room before she had gotten over her hangover; Temari knew she would never live down the shame should either of her brothers find out that she had actually chosen to stay in bed with Shukaku.

* * *

><p>Kankuro hit the floor with a heavy thud, a deep groan of pain escaping his throat as he tried to desperately climb back onto his bed. Last night had been a major mistake on his part, and now he would have to pay the price. Thankfully, he hadn't drunk all that much, so his hangover wasn't as bad as it could have been; kankuro also knew that the others had continued to drink long after he had stopped.<p>

With a mischievous smile, he slowly stumbled to his door and walked to Gaara's room. If his siblings had gotten as drunk as he thought they had, then whatever state they were in now would be well worth seeing. It took him longer than expected to reach Gaara's room, but he figured that all good things go to those that wait.

Quietly opening the door and looking inside, Kankuro had to stop himself from laughing at his little brother. Gaara was laying on the floor in his racoon onesie with Matsuri snuggled up to him in a cat onesie, both of them tangled up in the blanket from the bed.

_'Where the hell did she get a cat onesie? Actually, where did Gaara get his?' _Kankuro thought to himself.

"My little bro has a girl," he whispered to himself before standing up as straight as he could and giving a salute. "Good job sir, you have my respect," he said quietly.

Closing the door just as quietly as he had opened it, Kankuro began to venture towards his sisters room. He assumed that Shukaku was downstairs on the couch, since he doubted Gaara would pull the same prank twice, and silently wished that he had a camera to capture whatever embarrassing state Temari was in.

He had seen a lot of people deal with hangovers before, but he could just tell that Temari would be a unique and hilarious case. Kankuro was certain that his sister wasn't much of a drinker, perhaps a glass or two here and there, but nothing serious; therefor, a hangover of this magnitude should be a new and agonising experience for her.

Kankuro was happy to note that it didn't take him as long to get to Temari's room as it did Gaara's, and he could already feel his somewhat minor hangover beginning to clear. Once he reached her door, he almost made the grave mistake of knocking, a habit he had been forced to develop due to his sisters naturally violent outbursts towards anyone who simply walked into her room.

Making sure to be as quiet as humanly possible, he inched the door open. Once he had the door open far enough to look into he peeked inside, only for the smile on his face to disappear and be replaced by a blush.

He could see both Temari and Shukaku, cuddled up in her bed, in nothing but their underwear. Unfortunately, due to his hangover being nearly gone, Kankuro noticed something else that concerned him even more; something that proved that this was not just another of Gaara's childish pranks. Covering Shukaku's neck were a few hickeys and several bite marks, he even noticed some on Temari's neck as well.

In horrified silence, Kankuro closed his sister's door and slowly walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He sat there in silence for several minutes until he heard someone coming down the stairs; looking to the doorway, he saw Gaara walk in with an amused smile on his face, Matsuri followed closely behind with a content smile.

"Do you happen to know how our sister is doing?" Gaara asked quietly.

Kankuro looked curiously at his little brother as he noticed the barely contained amusement in his smile, as well as Matsuri struggling to stifle her giggling.

"What did you do this time Gaara?" he asked tiredly.

"Gaara didn't do anything," answered Matsuri with a giggle.

"Ok then, what did you do, Matsuri?" Kankuro asked.

"She didn't do anything either" answered Gaara cheerfully.

"Then why did I find Temari and Shukaku cuddled up together, half naked, with hickeys and bite marks?" he asked in frustration.

At that, Matsuri burst out laughing while Gaara began to chuckle lightly. Kankuro watched the both of them in growing irritation; could they not just tell him what the hell was happening.

"You should have seen them Kankuro, they were going at each other like crazy people!" exclaimed Matsuri as she started laughing harder.

"Are you telling me, that they were making out of their own accord?" Kankuro asked sceptically.

"Of course not, but once I reminded them that they would be required to possibly put on a show in public, well let's just say that alcohol causes some bad decisions to be made" Gaara explained.

"They made a competition out of who could be the better kisser, one thing led to another, and Temari dragged Shukaku up to her room," Matsuri added with a perverted giggle.

"And you two just let it happen?" yelled Kankuro.

"Why wouldn't we?" asked Gaara with a raised non-existent eyebrow.

"Because…" Kankuro began but paused suddenly.

Now that he thought about it, kankuro really couldn't find any reason for not letting Temari and Shukaku do as they pleased. Sure, Shukaku was one of the nine Bijuu, but he was practically human for now, not to mention that Shukaku was actually quite a nice guy once you got to know him. Then there was Temari, who would more than likely kill anyone who told her who she could and could not kiss. Yep, Kankuro definitely couldn't find any reason to go against them.

"I revoke my previous question," he said quickly.

Everyone stopped when they heard a loud thud come from upstairs, which was quickly followed by a second and not so loud thud. Gaara and Matsuri moved out of the doorway and they all waited quietly. After a couple of minutes, an extremely hung-over Shukaku walked into the kitchen with an equally hung-over Temari.

Shukaku had put on his pants but seemed to have forgone anything else in terms of clothing, and Temari had put on a pair of her own baggy pants along with Shukaku's shirt. They groggily walked over to the table and sat down with heavy sighs.

"Would anyone care to explain what happened last night?" Shukaku asked sleepily.

"According to these two" Kankuro began while gesturing to Gaara and Matsuri. "You and Temari got really drunk and challenged each other to some kind of make out contest," he explained with his own amused smile starting to form.

Shukaku's head slammed into the table as he groaned in pain, Temari just held her head in her hands as she tried to forget what her brother said.

"Please tell me we didn't," she said hopefully.

"I'm sorry but that's what happened, you guys started making out until eventually you dragged Shukaku to your room; after that, we don't know what happened" replied Gaara.

The group was silent for a short while until Temari stood up and started walking to the stairs, dragging a still groggy Shukaku behind her.

"Where are you going?" asked Kankuro.

"Back to bed" she said bluntly.

"Why are you dragging me with you?" Shukaku asked.

"Because you're a comfortable pillow, now shut up, pillows don't talk" she said quickly and dragged him quietly up the stairs.

"Be at my office tomorrow morning," Gaara said.

"Whatever!" she yelled back at him, before she slammed her door shut.

* * *

><p>The atmosphere in Gaara's office was slightly more tense than he had expected. Standing before him were his brother and sister, Shukaku, his old sensei Baki, and a handful of other jonin ranked shinobi. They all knew what they were here to discuss, yet most of the room's occupants seemed more concerned with keeping an eye on Shukaku and Temari; Gaara was glad that Baki was not one of those people, although the man had sent a few concerned glances to Temari.<p>

It didn't help that they were both sitting off to the side of the office, as if trying to hide in the shadows. Despite this, a few of the shinobi had noticed the hickeys and bite marks that had yet to completely heal on Shukaku, along with the few left on Temari. The presence of Shukaku's large scythe was not making things any easier either.

"Lord Kazekage, are you sure it's ok to discuss something like this with him in the room?" asked one of the shinobi while sending a pointed look at Shukaku.

"I'm not sure if he can be trusted, sir; it may also be best to remove lady Temari as well, lest she tell him the information otherwise" said another.

"I assure you, Shukaku is trustworthy, and my sister has never given any reason for anyone to doubt her loyalty" Gaara replied calmly, he had decided to use his old emotionless mask when dealing with Kazekage duties. "Is there anything else?" he asked.

"With all due respect my lord, I do not feel comfortable with them here," said another of the shinobi.

"Then leave" replied Baki.

"Excuse me sir?" the man asked.

"To question their loyalty is to question the Kazekage's judgement, therefor making your loyalty questionable. If you don't want to be in the same room as them, then get out; we will find someone else to do your job," Baki said sternly.

"But I still don't understand why they are here, we are discussing the security of the upcoming chunin exams, what do they have to do with it?" asked another in slight outrage.

"The exam proctors are required to be at this meeting," Gaara answered with a small amount of KI.

"Wait, the hell do you mean 'exam proctors'? I didn't sign up for that!" exclaimed Shukaku.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Shukaku on this, you can't just sign us up to it, not this close to the exams; we don't have time to plan our tests" said Temari.

"Don't worry, the basics of each test has already been decided, you just have to add your own unique twist on things to make it interesting enough to be challenging" Gaara explained. "You two will be in charge of proctoring the second exam and preliminary rounds if it comes to that and you'll be doing it together"

They both grumbled disapprovingly while muttering some choice curses at the redhead, but they didn't go beyond that.

"Baki, you will be proctoring the first exam, I trust you to not go easy on them," Gaara continued.

"Of course lord Kazekage"

"Good. I will be proctoring the third exam myself," Gaara said with a smile. "Now, we need to discuss security regarding the other villages. Since we possess an unsealed Bijuu, there are high chances of the other villages attempting to take control of Shukaku, we are to make sure that does not happen"

"Just let them take him, we don't need him" spat one of the ninja.

"Need I remind you that Shukaku, while unsealed, is not only our strongest asset, but also the sole controller of the entirety of wind country. If we lose him, we will be the only major village without a Bijuu under its control, putting as at a significant disadvantage. In addition, if another village were to capture him, we would lose Sunagakure; even if he is restricted to another jinchuuriki, the power that person would gain over the sands that surround our village would be enough to crush us effortlessly" Gaara explained.

"But you can still control sand, couldn't you defend the village?" asked one of the few female shinobi of the group.

"Not when that person has Shukaku's chakra at their disposal," he answered.

"Then why don't we just reseal the Ichibi now!" yelled the same ninja who had asked why Shukaku and Temari were at the meeting.

"You can fucking try!" shouted Shukaku as he picked up his scythe.

The unnamed shinobi roared in anger and charged at Shukaku. He got halfway across the room before collapsing, clutching his cleanly sliced throat as the blood flowed between his fingers. Everyone turned to look at Baki who's hand was covered in a blade of wind, as he stood above the dying man. Baki calmly dispersed his wind blade and calmly stepped away from the shinobi's body.

"Hey, I was gunna kill him!" exclaimed Shukaku.

Baki stared at Shukaku with some amusement. "If you had of killed him then everyone in this village would use it as an excuse to have you sealed, Gaara may be Kazekage but he does not possess the political power to stop a decision made by the majority of the village. Now that the man has died by my hand, no one can use it against you," he explained calmly.

"And why exactly would you be so kind to me?" Shukaku asked sceptically.

The man shook his head. "Not for you, for Temari. The whole village knows about you two and they wouldn't just stop at sealing you away, they'd more than likely kill her for her connection with you. She may be a jonin now but she will always be my student, and I will protect my students with my life if I must" the man said with conviction.

"Well said" stated Gaara. "Does anyone else feel the need to act against my orders?" he asked. No one said anything. "Good, now are there any more questions?"

"Yeah I got one" blurted out Shukaku. "Where's Kankuro?"

"Kankuro is going to meet the teams from Konohagakure at the border of wind country," Baki explained.

"Are we only doing that for Konoha?" he asked.

"No, a team has been sent to intercept each genin team from each village at our borders; this is a security measure to make sure the teams do not go where they are not permitted, and also allows us to keep an eye on them and keep them away from you and Temari" explained Gaara.

"Well there's not much else to discuss, I mean so long as me and Temari stick together we'll be fine; I am almost back to full strength and we are in the middle of a desert. Any extra guards you put around to protect us will just get in my way," Shukaku said nonchalantly.

"Are you doubting our capabilities?" asked an irritated shinobi.

"No, I am merely doubting your chances of survival should you get in my way from slaughtering anyone that would dare attack Temari" Shukaku replied sternly.

"So the demon does have a heart after all, who would have guessed," muttered a female shinobi.

"You wanna make another snarky remark, girl, cause I can show you your own heart if you want!" Shukaku yelled back.

"I'd like to see you try, but I'd kill your girlfriend before you could even get to me," she said confidently.

Shukaku glared at the woman before looking to Gaara. Gaara nodded his head solemnly and Shukaku turned to look questioningly at Temari, who also gave a solemn nod.

"Aww, does the big bad demon need permission? I didn't realise you were on such a tight leash" the female shinobi spat.

Shukaku burst into hysterical laughter. "Who ever said I was asking to do anything" he said with a crazed grin before he spun on his heels and walked back over to Temari.

He held out his hand, which she quickly took, before the both of them calmly walked out of the office. Every shinobi in the office, minus the dead one still lying on the floor, looked back to Gaara in confusion.

"Lord Kazekage, what just happened?" asked the woman.

"What happened is that you just threatened a fellow shinobi, my sister no less. If I was not currently acting as Kazekage, I would kill you for such a thing, but unfortunately for me, I am the Kazekage!" explained Gaara through gritted teeth. "Baki, I want you to give the orders for the shinobi forces to maintain standard security during the chunin exams; make sure they understand not to interfere with Temari or Shukaku," he ordered.

"You!" he said venomously while pointing to the female ninja. "You are suspended from active duty for threatening the life of a fellow shinobi without just cause, you will be reinstated as a chunin after three months; any further outbursts directed at the Ichibi or my sister will extend your sentence," Gaara stated.

"And for the love of Kami, will someone get rid of the body already" he shouted in irritation.

He sighed deeply as he collapsed onto his comfy office chair. Gaara was beginning to understand why the Hokage drank so much; he really needed a bowl of ramen right about now.

* * *

><p>"So my dear, what would you like to do?" Shukaku asked with a hint of sarcasm.<p>

Temari glared at him. They were both currently walking through the streets of the village at random with their arms interlocked. It was bad enough that they had to deal with people thinking they were together, but to have to act as if they actually were was beginning to annoy her.

"I was thinking we could just go home and relax," she said hopefully.

"Actually, I think I will agree with you on that; we need to plan our part of the exam anyway" he replied calmly.

They both remained silent as they walked back to the Kazekage mansion, Shukaku maintaining ignorance to everything around him, and Temari trying to ignore all the glares and disgusted looks sent their way. It didn't take them long to reach the house and once they were inside they both collapsed onto the couch with a sigh.

"Today was stressful," Temari said.

"I will admit, things could have gone better" Shukaku replied.

"And I still haven't fully recovered from my hangover either" she whined. "My head is killing me"

"Do you want a massage or something?" he asked innocently.

Temari gave him a confused and highly sceptical look. "Do you even know how to give a massage?" she asked.

"Yes" he answered simply.

"How?"

Shukaku chuckled slightly in embarrassment and avoided eye contact with Temari. "When I was much younger, my sister convinced me that the best thing I could do for a girl is know how to give a proper massage; therefor I learned how, and even perfected it," he said quietly.

Temari tried desperately to hold back the laughter that she knew was just waiting to burst out of her, but unfortunately it was too much and she exploded into uncontrollable hysterics. She continued to laugh for a few minutes, to the point of actually crying, until she was able to control herself to only a few girly giggles every now and then.

"You have a sister?" she asked with a smile.

"Actually I have two," he answered.

"And one of them convinced you to learn how to give a massage?"

"She did, yes"

"This sister of yours wouldn't happen to be named Matatabi would she? You know, the person you keep mumbling about in your sleep, something about building sandcastles," Temari said with a grin. She was getting ridiculously close to laughing again.

"Who the hell said you could listen in on my mumbling; that's private stuff!" Shukaku exclaimed in embarrassment.

"It's hilarious and adorable; I mean come on, you used to make sand castles for your sister. If that isn't cute, I don't know what is," Temari said with a laugh.

"Well I'm glad to see you're enjoying making fun of me," he muttered with a pout.

"You're the one who thinks he perfected the art of giving a massage, it's only fair that I laugh at you" she replied.

"I did perfect it!" he exclaimed.

"Sure you did, have you ever done it to anyone?" she asked jokingly.

"Well duh, how do you think I perfected it? I even found out how to relax the people I was practicing on to the point where they couldn't even feel the pain from me removing their skin," he answered casually.

Temari's eyes widened and she looked at Shukaku in horrified curiosity. "You skinned people?" she asked fearfully.

"I had to figure out where all the muscles were somehow," Shukaku answered nonchalantly.

"You mean you actually killed people, just for that?" she asked quietly, the blood draining from her face.

Temari had fully expected Shukaku to give another casual answer; she did not expect him to start laughing hysterically while pointing at her.

"You should see your face, I didn't think I could scare you that much!" he exclaimed before continuing with his laughing fit.

Temari just sat there in surprise. She had been tricked, by Shukaku no less, and now he was laughing at her much the same way she had been laughing at him. It would have been funny had it been anyone else, but Temari didn't like being the target of a joke. She narrowed her eyes in anger and reared her fist back before throwing it at Shukaku's head.

Without even a pause in his laughter, Shukaku caught her fist and jabbed two fingers into the inside of her elbow. Temari's arm went limp and pulsed with an indescribable feeling of pleasure and relaxation, causing her to gasp and moan slightly at the sensation.

"What did you just do to my arm?" she asked with a heavy breath.

"That is how I perfected giving a massage; I send a pulse of my chakra through your coils and directly into your muscles, relaxing them from the inside out. How did it feel?" he asked with a cocky grin.

Temari wanted to say it was horrible, she wanted to scream at him and tell him it felt disgusting, but she just couldn't do it.

"It felt amazing," she said quietly.

"Would you like me to continue?" he asked with a smile.

She didn't respond straight away, choosing instead to think over her options, which were somewhat limited at the moment. She could refuse and simply be happy with the wonderful sensation that was still pulsing through her arm, or she could accept and possibly drown herself in relaxation. The dull throbbing in her head didn't help either; it didn't take long for her to choose the latter.

"Fine" she answered quickly.

Shukaku leaned over and poked her forehead, causing Temari's whole body to suddenly go limp and drop to the floor with a light thud. He smiled contently and leaned back into the couch; it seemed he would get a few hours of peace and quiet after all.


	13. Chapter 13

Authors Notes:

Here is the new chapter, sorry for the wait but i just recently got a new laptop, meaning that i actually got all of the updates between 2007 and now. Needless to say its been a journey to get used to the new stuff. Anyway, i hope you enjoy this chapter.

I would like to note that the updates for this story will not be as plentiful as they have been over the last couple of weeks, i am currently working on my own original material as well as another fanfic which i have no idea whether or not ill actually stick with. This doesn't mean i'm giving up on this story since i already have most of it planned out including the ending, so i will finish this fanfic eventually.

Please don't forget to leave a review on what you thought about this chapter, your comments really are what inspires me to keep writing and i haven't been getting very many recently.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

><p>Shukaku had to admit, things had been going so much better since he had practically made Temari comatose. He had done absolutely nothing but laze around, read a book or two, and not once had he been interrupted by the girl; it was fantastic.<p>

Kankuro wasn't due back for another few hours, Gaara was still held up in his office, and Temari would be coming out of her daze shortly, meaning that Shukaku only had about half an hour left of free time; luckily, he knew just how to spend it.

Walking back into the lounge room, he picked Temari up bridal style; he wasn't so cruel as to drag her around the house. Carrying her up the stairs and into her room, he gently put her down on her bed before reaching under said bed and feeling around for anything new to blackmail her with. Eventually he couldn't find anything other than her girly magazines, so he quickly left Temari to sleep off her stupor.

He walked back down the stairs and into the kitchen, which he had realised was the most frequented room of the house. Opening the freezer, he grabbed a large tub of ice cream and quietly sat down at the table. Shukaku stared cautiously at the tub of ice cream for quite some time, as if he wasn't entirely sure as to what it was. If he were being completely honest, Shukaku would say he didn't trust it.

Over his many years of life, he had heard about the wonders of ice cream, yet he had never actually tried it for himself. He was certain that a being of his power didn't require such trivial things to be satisfied, but now he was curious. What was all fuss about with ice cream, it couldn't possibly be that good, could it?

With slight hesitance in his movement, Shukaku reached out and gently removed the lid of the tub, before picking up a kunai that he had acquired from Temari's room; his reasons for doing so were not entirely clear, but he was incredibly pleased not to have to use the flimsy utensil known as a spoon. He slowly scraped the sharpened edge across the partially frozen substance before apprehensively bringing it to his mouth.

He extended his tongue in much the same way that creepy guy Orochimaru would, and licked the insignificant amount of ice cream from the bladed tool. His eyes widened in an explosive combination of shock and realisation, tears of joy forming in the corners of his eyes as he stared at the small container of frozen perfection. If he didn't know any better, he would claim that this ice cream stuff was a literal gift from Kami, he would even wage war against those who would disagree.

Hastily grabbing the tub of deliciousness, Shukaku scurried to the corner of the room. With a crazed smile he began to devour the ice cream as if it were his first meal in years; the sad truth of the matter, was that he hadn't actually been able to eat anything while sealed away for the past century, making food far more enjoyable.

* * *

><p>Temari woke up feeling relaxed and refreshed in a way she had never thought possible, like the stress of her entire life had simply been lifted from her shoulders. It was an amazing feeling that she knew was caused by Shukaku's 'chakra massage', she couldn't really think of a better name than that since he did practically give her a massage with his chakra.<p>

She really didn't want to admit it, but she knew that at some point, she was going to have to get him to do it again; it was simply too good of a feeling to receive only once in a lifetime. The only problem would come in the form of Shukaku himself, since Temari knew without a doubt that he would never let her live it down; that and he would probably turn it into some sort of sexual reference to tease her about.

Opening her eyes, she fully expected to find herself still lying on the floor where she clearly remembered falling to before blacking out; Temari honestly didn't expect Shukaku to bother with her after she passed out. It simply didn't seem like something that he would do without a good reason; so finding herself lying in her bed was very confusing for her.

That made Temari think; just what did Shukaku perceive as a good reason to do something, better yet, what was his reason for anything. Every time she thought about Shukaku, the same questions would always come up; why was he helping her, why did he heal Gaara, what exactly was his debt and who did he owe it to, none of it really added up and only served to give her a headache every time she tried to figure it out.

She quickly decided to end that particular train of thought since she knew it wouldn't lead anywhere of immediate concern, and instead chose to finally get up and find out what Shukaku had been doing while she was asleep. Slowly getting up from her bed, Temari couldn't stop the moan that escaped her from the still present jolts of pleasure that pulsed through her muscles.

Using the walls to keep herself steady, Temari made her way from her room and down the stairs. She slowly descended the steps one at a time, until she finally reached the bottom, and continued her journey to the kitchen. Stepping into the doorway, she stopped and stared; lying on the ground with an empty tub of ice cream, was Shukaku.

Temari quickly noticed the ice cream covered kunai in his hand, along with the satisfied grin etched on his face. She didn't know what had happened, nor was she entirely certain that she wanted to know either; as far as her better judgement concerned, it was better left unknown. Unfortunately, Temari's curiosity got the better of her, something that it had been doing for quite a while since meeting Shukaku.

"What happened?" she asked lazily.

Shukaku turned his head to look at her, his grin never faltering once, before returning to staring pointlessly at the ceiling.

"I discovered the wonders of ice cream and I shall never be the same for it," he explained calmly.

"You…discovered…ice cream?" Temari asked sceptically. "You're a thousand years old and you only just now discovered ice cream? What the hell have you been doing with your life?" she continued in disbelief.

"I'm not even sure of what I was doing with my life until now, perhaps it was completely worthless, who knows; it would probably be best if I just forget everything that ever happened" he said carelessly.

A yelp sounded out, followed by a pained groan, as Shukaku felt an uncomfortable weight land on his stomach. Looking up, he was greeted by the glare of Temari, who had somehow crossed the room without so much as a sound. The kunai that he had been using as a substitute spoon was gripped in her as she held it up against his throat; he assumed he had said something to upset her, though he wasn't sure what it was.

"If you even dare to think about forgetting how to give a massage like you did before, I will skin you alive and burn you in oil. I refuse to lose the source of such an amazing sensation so quickly after finding it and I very much expect to experience it again sometime in the future; do you understand?" she asked threateningly.

Shukaku smiled perversely and slowly removed the hand that held the kunai at his throat, making sure to send an insignificant amount of his chakra into her arm. His smile widened slightly at the barely restrained moan from Temari, as he lifted himself up on his elbows, allowing him to come within breathing distance of her.

"I didn't think you enjoyed it that much," he whispered. "Tell me, Temari, just what would you give for another massage? What do I get out of it?" he asked quietly.

Temari suspected what he wanted, it was always the same thing that every man wanted; just because Shukaku was a demon didn't exempt him from the rule that applied to all men. This didn't mean she wasn't going to hope he'd ask for something else, something not perverted.

"What do you want?" she whispered back, her teal coloured eyes pleading that he didn't say something disgusting.

"I think you can safely assume what it is I want by the current position I'm in" he said calmly.

Temari's hopes were crushed. She knew exactly what he meant by the position he was currently in, after all, she was sitting on top of him in a rather assuming position. She glared back at him in disgust, a slight amount of disappointment forming in her as she realised that she would never get another chakra massage, at least not for the price he was insinuating.

"Well you can forget about that; I already told you that there will be absolutely no sexual favours, or anything else of that nature, so you can burn in hell if that's what you're after" she declared sternly, crossing her arms over her chest to further express her point.

Shukaku adopted a highly confused expression as he lifted up the empty tub of ice cream that he was still holding. "I was going to ask for more ice cream; you know, cause I ran out and I'm not in a position to go and buy any more since no one will sell anything to me" he replied casually.

"You just want ice cream?" she asked blandly, one of her eyebrows raised questioningly. "That's all you want, out of everything you could possibly have asked from me, and its ice cream?"

He gave her an odd look and raised one of his own eyebrows to match hers. "What else would I ask for?" he replied, his head tilting in confusion.

Temari's eyes widened in astonishment. "I'm sitting on you in a provocative position, any other guy would have asked for something perverted," she explained.

"Oh, that. I already had a make out contest with you so I'm content for a little while," he said nonchalantly.

"That was a mistake, I was drunk!" she exclaimed loudly.

"Shut up, you enjoyed it" Shukaku retorted.

Temari glared down at him as he smiled smugly. She honestly considered punching him in the face, if only it wouldn't affect her chances of getting another massage.

"And how the hell would you know if I enjoyed it?" she asked dangerously.

Her glare disappeared as she moaned unintentionally again. Looking down, she saw one of Shukaku's hands on her stomach, his smug smile growing significantly, as she shivered from the sensations bleeding into her body. He lifted his hand and began slowly tracing over the seal he had placed above her navel, each gentle movement making her shiver a little more.

Shukaku continued to trace her seal, making his chakra pulse through her every now and again, as he slowly leant forward and brought his mouth to her ear.

"Perhaps I could show you just how much you enjoyed it, all you have to do is ask," he whispered.

Temari blushed a deep shade of red. It was becoming harder and harder to not moan, what with the chakra pulses Shukaku kept pumping into her and the fact that her seal had actually become a very sensitive spot ever since she got it. She wasn't too happy about being toyed with and manipulated so easily, for what she assumed was nothing more than his entertainment, but it was incredibly difficult to fight against when it felt so ridiculously good.

"Am I interrupting something here?" asked Gaara from the doorway.

Shukaku jumped in panic, accidently pumping extra chakra into Temari making her finally give into the sensation and moan loudly. She collapsed against him with a heavy breath while he stayed perfectly still; he didn't dare move as Gaara stared at him with a raised non-existent eyebrow. As soon as Temari regained some form of conscious thought, she too sat up slightly and stared nervously at Gaara, still resting most of her weight against Shukaku for support.

"Gaara, I swear, this is not what it looks like" Shukaku said with a nervous chuckle.

"And what, might I ask, does this look like?" Gaara asked with a highly amused smile slowly forming on his face.

Shukaku did a quick look around the room, and at the position he and Temari were in, before returning back to Gaara.

"I guess from where you're standing it would appear that I was pleasuring your sister in some form of erotic foreplay involving ice cream, which by the way we are going to need more of" Shukaku explained calmly.

"Is that what was happening?"

"NO!" yelled Temari.

"Hah, I wish" Shukaku muttered.

Temari turned back and glared at him. "Keep quiet, or else" she growled at him dangerously.

"Or what?" he asked. "I'm not sure if you realised this yet, but you're the one who wants things from me, you have nothing to threaten me with, nothing to bargain with, I'm practically untouchable" he replied with a laugh.

"Can someone please explain what is going on before I kill Shukaku for violating my sister?" Gaara asked emotionlessly.

"Nothing is going on, me and Shukaku just…fell" Temari said with a fake smile.

Both Gaara and Shukaku stared blankly at her, trying hard to forget what she had just said but to avail. Temari looked away with a huff and Shukaku turned to face Gaara with a cheerful smile.

"To answer your question, my faithful jinchuuriki of old; after giving your dear sister a fully body, and apparently very pleasurable massage, she found me completely irresistible and just couldn't help but tackle me to the floor in lustful desire. I barely had time to grab this here ice cream before she demanded that I pleasure her. She's insane Gaara, completely insane; but kami do I love it!" Shukaku explained sagely, a cocky smile almost cutting his face in half.

"Would you care to argue against that, Temari?" Gaara asked his sister, who had surprisingly been quiet and non-violent during Shukaku's preposterous explanation of things.

"No, that's what happened" she answered simply.

Gaara's eyes widened to the point of nearly exiting his skull, as he stared disbelievingly at his sister. Shukaku was reacting much the same, only he had begun stabbing himself with the kunai in an attempt to force himself out of the dream he was convinced he was in. Temari just watched them both in mild amusement, until it became too much and she started laughing.

"You two should see your faces!" she exclaimed.

Shukaku's face morphed into an expression of horrified confusion which quickly turned to horrified realisation as he stared at the girl sitting on top of him, laughing hysterically. He turned to Gaara, who had adopted a much similar expression to himself, and mouthed the words 'can I kill her now?'

Gaara took on a serious expression for a moment and thought about his answer intensely. Could he really condemn his elder sister to death, all for creating an awkward situation that he felt was unjust. Was it wrong for him to feel no remorse for actually wishing to give Shukaku the order to kill her, yes, yes it was; did he care, no, he did not. So with an intense gaze, Gaara nodded in the affirmative to Shukaku, receiving one in return.

"We're so sorry it came to this Temari, we truly are" Shukaku said solemnly.

Temari's laughter stopped as she looked back down at Shukaku in confusion. "What are you sorry for?" she asked nervously.

"This" he answered as she was enveloped in sand.

* * *

><p>"I hate both of you," Temari muttered angrily.<p>

"You can't just say that after agreeing that you attacked me in lustful desire, you have to own that now" Shukaku replied.

"I'm afraid Shukaku is right, you already agreed with it, so now you must live with it," Gaara added with a smile.

"I…hate…both…of…you" she repeated through gritted teeth.

"I love you too sweetie!" Shukaku exclaimed sarcastically, putting his arm over her shoulders.

Temari groaned in despair. If they weren't currently walking down the streets towards where the first chunin exam was being held, Temari would more than likely try to kill him for calling her something like that. Even if this were a real relationship, she would never allow herself to be called by some stupid term of endearment.

Unfortunately, they were still in public, with a rather large amount of eyes on them to boot, meaning that not only could she not attack him, but she also had to act for her part as well. Oh, how she hated having to pretend to be with Shukaku romantically; could no one else see how absolutely ridiculous such an idea was, for one of the Bijuu to actually have a relationship with a mortal. Temari knew she would be having a good laugh once the whole incident was over.

For the moment however, she was still angry with Shukaku and Gaara. After her little laugh at their expressions in the kitchen, they had encased her in sand, before Shukaku knocked her out with another chakra massage. And now here she was, walking down the street, looking almost like a completely different person.

Her grey overtop and purple blouse had been torn to midriff length, openly revealing her stomach and the seal above her navel, while her skirt and shorts had been replaced with a pair of dark blue baggy pants, much like what Shukaku would wear. Shukaku had even gone so far as to put a henge seal on her that gave her the black rings around her eyes that he had, along with the same curse seal markings extending from those rings.

The only things that would distinguish her as actually being Temari, was her sandy blonde hair and large battle fan strapped to her back. Without that, she could easily pass for someone else. Temari did have to admit though, that she did look cool with the new outfit and the added rings and curse seal markings around her eyes did help to make her appear more attractive, in a slightly intimidating and curious way.

She had noticed the few heads that had turned in her direction as they walked down the street, but she had also noticed how all of the leering stares quickly turned to realisation and disgust. Temari shrugged mentally and continued walking; after what could be counted as three separate chakra massages, she was just too relaxed to give a damn about what the villagers thought of her.

It took them a little while to walk across the village to where the first exam was being held; Shukaku had voiced his confusion of why he and Temari were even needed, which funnily enough Temari had actually agreed with. Gaara explained that it was more of an intimidation act for the genin teams that would also help point out any potential teams that would try to capture Shukaku.

Once they arrived at where they needed to be, a rather large building set aside from the rest of the village, they calmly walked in. Navigating quietly through the halls, they quickly stopped outside of a dull red door, a large collection of raised voices sounding from behind it.

"Is there any particular reason why the door is red?" Shukaku asked.

"It used to be white," Gaara answered simply.

"Well aren't you just an encyclopaedia of fantastic answers, you simplistic brat" Shukaku spat sarcastically.

"Can you two just shut up and open the door, I want to get this over with quickly," Temari said sharply. _'I can just imagine how many cocky little brats are going to ogle me in there' _she thought to herself with a frown.

"Temari my dear, would you mind saving such feistiness for later, it does make things so much more enjoyable," Shukaku said with a smirk.

* * *

><p>Baki sighed as he waited patiently for Gaara to arrive. He knew that he would be bringing his sister and Shukaku along with him, but could they really slow him down this much? Looking back over the large group of genin in front of him, Baki wanted you yell at them for being so loud but they had been waiting an hour now and he honestly couldn't blame them for being rowdy. He got ready to begin the exam without Gaara when the door exploded and someone was thrown into the room.<p>

"Do you wanna try be funny again?" yelled Temari.

Shukaku jumped back to his feet and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened. Both he and Temari were completely oblivious to the large crowd of genin who were watching them with wide eyes.

"I thought you knew me better than that, of course I want to be funny again. And here I thought you loved me!" he exclaimed, holding his chest in mock heartbreak.

"I have never said that!" she screamed.

"Not with words, but your eyes were practically overflowing with love when I gave you that massage" Shukaku replied with a perverted grin.

His grin was quickly wiped from his face by the flat side of Temari's battle fan, sending him into the wall across the room. Temari's eyes widened as she realised exactly where she was, a light blush forming on her cheeks as she noticed all of the genin staring at her, some of the girls even had jealous looks aimed at her.

By this point, Gaara had walked over and stood next to Baki, both of them watching in amusement.

"So, what exactly am I watching here?" Baki asked with a smile.

"Shukaku is trying to anger Temari by teasing her and making lewd comments and assumptions," Gaara explained calmly.

"So I take it she still doesn't know about the deal?" the older ninja asked quietly, his tone more serious.

"No, and Shukaku wishes for her to remain oblivious to the truth for as long as possible" the redhead answered.

"She is going to find out eventually, wouldn't it be better if we told her, I'm not the only one who knows she would react badly to this" Baki said worriedly.

"I would like to trust Shukaku's judgment, he has already done more for me and my siblings than we could know" Gaara replied.

"Are you sure it was wise to go along with this deal he made, Temari will kill you when she finds out"

"I understand the consequences of this deal, but anything is better than the alternative" he replied sternly.

"Just tell her soon, please. As your older sister she at least needs to know why you agreed to it" Baki said sadly.

"I know, but such things can wait for now. We should focus on the exams; I will tell Temari after this is over" Gaara said before looking back at his sister who was currently chuckling nervously while every genin stared at her.

_'I do hope you don't hate me for this' _he thought sadly.


	14. Chapter 14

Authors Notes:

I present the next chapter, hopefully it will be enjoyable. In my defense, the number 14 is not a number i take kindly to, therefor the following chapter was somewhat of a pain to complete. I would also like to note that most of this story is made up as i go along, very few things are planned aside from the major events which i still haven't gotten around to. Due to this i might accidentally repeat something from a previous chapter, and so i apologize in advance.

Any and all reviews are very much appreciated, as are suggestions and any questions you might have. Please do not hesitate to comment or message me directly, i will reply as quickly as i can.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

><p>Temari glared at Baki as the man backed himself into a wall nervously. Gaara and Shukaku were off to the side watching expectantly for the ass kicking that was about to ensue. Baki himself was trying desperately to figure out how to turn this situation away from himself, his one visible eye looking around in panic for a possible escape route.<p>

Somehow, Shukaku had obtained another tub of ice cream which he was now sharing with Gaara as they watched, something that annoyed Temari even more than the abomination of an exam she had just witnessed. Focusing her glare further, she put her hands on her hips and struck an expectant pose.

"Care to explain?" she asked coldly.

Baki could feel the nervous sweat dripping down his face; he could feel her eyes burning a hole in his very soul, and in that instant he knew he was absolutely fucked.

"You have to admit, it was a good idea. I even managed to reduce the number of teams by just over half," he said in an attempt to defend himself.

"That isn't the point and you know it!" Temari said sharply. "This was supposed to test their ninja skills, but you turned it into a joke"

"Would you believe me if I said that it was Kankuro's idea?" Baki asked hopefully.

"No, I wouldn't, and do you want to know why? Because he knows that I would force him to walk around the village in a tutu for doing something so utterly juvenile!" she yelled.

"You know, if you really think about it Temari, technically this exam could have counted for deception. One of the most vital ninja skills is being able to blend in and deceive the opponent," stated Shukaku with a sagely tone.

"Exactly!" Baki exclaimed in relief. "I had this planned all along, the ultimate test to challenge their ability in deception and blending in"

Temari's glare slowly turned to Shukaku, causing him to stop eating his ice cream. He could tell he had somehow crossed another of those invisible tripwires that girls seem to set up randomly for reasons unknown to him. Thankfully, they were still in the exam room, accompanied by the remaining genin teams, meaning that she couldn't just attack him for it since they still needed to act as a couple.

"Sweetie" Temari said in a sickly sweet voice.

"Yes dear?" Shukaku asked sarcastically with a smile.

"Please shut up and stay out of this, it doesn't concern you" she replied in the same sickening voice.

"But I wanna be a part of it" he whined pathetically.

"Sister, should you not try to be more inclusive of your boyfriend?" Gaara asked with no hidden amount of amusement.

Both Temari and Shukaku glared at Gaara. Neither of them particularly liked having to pretend to be in a relationship, except for those few moments that Shukaku got to embarrass Temari; he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy those. But the line was drawn at Gaara ruining things by reminding them of the fact that they had to 'sell the act' as such. Shukaku made a mental note to prank Gaara later on; perhaps he could get Temari in on it as well.

"No, now shut up" she replied. "And you!" she continued while pointing at Baki. "We will talk about why it's not ok to turn a chunin exam into a giant game of blackjack later; I have to proctor the next test right now so you're spared from the ass kicking of your life, for the moment"

She turned around and glared at the remaining genin, paying extra attention to the few who still had cards in their hands. Her glare quickly turned to Shukaku, as she made a commanding gesture for him to come and stand next to her. With an exasperated sigh, Shukaku got off of the desk he was sitting on, picked up his scythe, walked over and stood next to her.

"Good boy" she said while petting him on the head, to which Shukaku responded with a grumble.

A few of the girls giggled at the pairs antics, while a few of the boys sent Shukaku sympathetic looks. A minority of the group maintained either a hateful glare or disgusted expression at the two, expressions that quickly dropped when Shukaku started to innocently twirl his scythe slowly in his hand.

"Due to highly unfortunate circumstances, as well as the unorthodox decision of an idiot" Temari began with a pointed look at Gaara, who looked up from the bowl of ramen he had obtained from somewhere and waved enthusiastically. "Me and Shukaku are going to be the proctors of the second exam, which will be explained further at the village gate. Now, are there any questions before we leave?" she asked.

"Um, I have one," said one of the genin nervously, their arm raised as if in an academy classroom. "Will the next test be serious, or should we expect another game type thing?" asked the girl quietly.

"I can assure you that the next exam will be serious, in fact, I plan on adding to it in order to make up for the lack of an actual challenge in this exam," Temari said with a sadistic smile.

For some reason unknown to Shukaku, he had the intense urge to hug Temari in joy; it was as if she was going to do something that would make him happier than any man on Kami's green earth. Now if only he could figure out what it was; he knew it wouldn't be anything raunchy, which left only one real possible answer. She was getting him more ice cream.

Once Shukaku returned from his musings and back to the real world, he realised that the room was empty, leaving only him and Temari who was staring at him curiously.

"Are you feeling ok?" she asked.

"Maybe, why?" he asked.

"You've been staring off into the distance for a few minutes"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I was just thinking about stuff" he replied casually before running and diving out of a window.

Temari remained where she was and stared blankly at the now broken window he had jumped out of; she couldn't even be surprised by his insanity anymore, it was just too common to be shocking. A gentle small smile tugged at her lips; at least he wasn't boring.

* * *

><p>"Ok people, listen up and listen well," Temari yelled to the 30 or so remaining teams that had gathered at the village gate. "This is the survival section of the exam, and as the name suggests you will be required to survive. Every team will be given enough food and water for two days, after which you will walk into the desert until Sunagakure is no longer visible to you," she explained loudly.<p>

"You will be required to remain in the desert for four days; on the fifth day 5 flags will be released into the desert. By collecting one of these flags, you will certify your place in passing the exam, unless another team is to take your flag of course. Teams will have until sundown to return to the village before they are disqualified, the teams that do return without a flag will be forced to fight for a place in the next exam in a preliminary round"

"Every genin here will receive a personal signal flare, should you choose to give up or are injured. Killing in this exam is allowed and death is more than likely to occur to two or three teams here, if not at the hands of another team then more than likely from the desert itself. Are there any questions?" she asked finally.

"How are we supposed to survive four days with only two days' worth of rations?" asked one of the genin.

"You could always kill another team for their rations," Shukaku offered casually.

"You're kidding right?" the genin asked back.

"Actually no, he isn't kidding. If you want more rations then you're just gunna have to get them yourself, by whatever means necessary" Temari said seriously.

"How are you going to get the flags out there without interrupting the exam?" asked an older female genin, one who Temari and Shukaku noticed belonged to the only Iwagakure team.

Temari smiled wickedly and Shukaku felt the need to literally get on his hands and knees and thank her for something.

"That's where my personal addition to this exam comes into play. My lovely boyfriend here will be the one to place the flags in the desert, since not only is he not an actual member of any village, but this desert is also his territory by right. It is incredibly difficult to accuse a demon of interrupting the exam being held on his own property, some might even say it's suicidal," Temari said with a growing smirk.

"So, in order to make this somewhat enjoyable for him as well, I've decided that he will create five clones that will carry the flags into the desert. It will be your job to fight these clones for the flag, keeping in mind that should Shukaku find reason to believe that you are not in fact genin ranked and are attempting to infiltrate these exams for whatever reasons, he will kill you" she explained in a sickeningly sweet voice.

The entire group of genin stared wide eyed at Temari, most of them thinking that the girl was mentally insane, while a few of them gulped at the thought of being slaughtered by a demon. Shukaku had joined in with the crowd, only he was staring at Temari as if she was the reincarnation of Kami herself; even going so far as having tears of pure joy form in the corners of his eyes.

"Temari, I don't know if I say this enough, but Kami do I love you," he said happily, receiving 'awing' from a couple of the girls present.

Temari smirked in an attempt to hide the slight blush on her face. "You have never said that, ever" she said causing most of the girls to glare at Shukaku disapprovingly. "But don't worry; you can make it up to me with another one of those 'special' massages" she cooed assumingly with a wink.

Many of the girls gained bright red blushes as they looked curiously at Shukaku, whereas more than a few of the males present were forced to hide a nose bleed. Unlike those around him, Shukaku actually had the privilege of knowing Temari before this moment in time, meaning that he knew that something was not in any way shape or form right about this.

"You're just messing with me aren't you?" he asked emotionlessly.

"Wouldn't you just love to know" she replied innocently.

"Not that we aren't enjoying the show, but could we perhaps get on with the chunin exam?" asked one of the other Iwa shinobi.

Temari groaned in frustration. She had actually been enjoying her moment of making all of the genin embarrassed and uncomfortable, even if she had to bring Shukaku into it; but now it was ruined.

"Fine. The ration packs are in a pile over there," she said irritably as she pointed to a large stack of back packs that everyone felt stupid for not noticing before. "Take one and start walking, think about taking more than one and I will personally serve you an ass kicking on a gold trimmed, diamond encrusted, silver platter," she threatened.

Within seconds, every genin had grabbed a bag and run into the desert as if their lives depended on it; an ironically humorous thing considering Suna was where most people would run for their lives when in the desert. Eventually Temari and Shukaku were left standing at the village gate like a pair of idiots.

With a smile on her face, Temari grabbed Shukaku by the collar of his coat and began dragging him back to the Kazekage mansion.

"Temari, what the hell are you doing?" Shukaku asked angrily.

"I'm going back home" she answered simply.

"Ok, then why are you dragging me with you?" he asked.

"Did you really think I was joking about you giving me another massage?" she said with a laugh. "We have four days of free time and you have a lot of making up to do"

"Making up for what?" he yelled.

"Why for the fact that we have been in this 'relationship' for an entire week now and you've only told me you love me once; I must say Shukaku, I'm hurt. Now stop complaining, you still have to help me kick Baki's ass," Temari answered calmly.

"So what you're saying is, that not only do I get the chance to beat a bunch of snotty little kids into the sand, but I also get to help you kick your old sensei's ass?" he asked cheerfully.

"Yes, so walk quicker" she ordered.

"Actually, I wanted to show you something, so how about we go back to the house and you grab that chakra sphere I gave you a while ago" Shukaku suggested.

"No way, I want another massage" Temari retorted.

"After I show you this I promise to give you a massage, in fact, I'll even give you a full body chakra massage," he offered.

Temari stopped mid step and stared disbelievingly at Shukaku. "What do you mean full body massage, isn't that what you gave me the last times?" she asked.

"No not really, I only sent enough chakra through your muscles to make you pass out, not enough to have the full effect" he answered calmly.

Shukaku didn't even hear Temari yell, "Let's go", before he was dragged painfully through the streets at incredible speeds. Looking back on things, he realised that it was probably a very bad idea to divulge such information to Temari, considering her liking for chakra massages and apparently addictive attitude. But in the end, he supposed that everything would work out; it's not as if she could force him to give her a massage, could she?

* * *

><p>Within 20 minutes, Shukaku found himself in the middle of one of the villages training grounds with an overly enthusiastic Temari who was staring at him expectantly. He was at least happy to know that she had the chakra sphere held in her hands; it was long past due for him to show her what the thing was used for anyway.<p>

"So what is it you wanted to show me?" she asked excitedly.

"How does it feel?" he asked vaguely.

Temari gave him a questioning look. "How does what feel?" she asked.

"The sphere, how does it feel, is it hot, cold, pulsing, vibrating, heavy, weightless, take your pick" he said calmly.

"Um, I guess right now it feels kind of warm, a bit heavy, and its pulsing slightly" she answered.

"Good, that means it's completely synced itself with your chakra and is ready to be absorbed" Shukaku said with a smile.

"A-Absorbed?" she stuttered.

Temari looked at the small sphere with concern. She could easily feel how powerful it was, how much raw chakra Shukaku had pumped into it; even now that her celestial gates were permanently open and her chakra reserves had skyrocketed, she could still feel how insignificant her power was compared to just the sphere alone. It was terrifying to think that Shukaku had created and condensed so much pure chakra into this thing during a simple fight, and it was even scarier to think of how much more power he had at his disposal.

That thought made her curious. If Shukaku did in fact have such tremendous amounts of incredibly potent chakra, then why couldn't she sense it; Temari wondered if anyone could actually sense his full power. She had never really thought about it until now, but whenever he was around, he only ever exuded enough chakra to pass for a very powerful Kage, not the suffocating and toxic amounts typically depicted of a Bijuu.

"Hey, why can't I sense your chakra?" she asked suddenly.

"What?" Shukaku replied.

"Why can't I sense your chakra, I mean as in all of it. I know you have more than you are giving off, this sphere is proof of that, I'm just wondering why everyone isn't suffocating on it like they should be" she asked calmly.

"Oh, that. I keep my chakra constantly suppressed so as to not have the entire village on alert, it wouldn't be very helpful to have every ninja in the whole area freaking out all the time" he replied causally.

"But wouldn't that be difficult, if not exhausting, to suppress that much of your chakra?"

"From a human's point of view I'm sure it would seem like that, but I'm made of chakra, keeping it suppressed is as much second nature for me as blinking is for you; how do you think me and my siblings went mostly unnoticed for around nine hundred years" he explained nonchalantly.

"But it still can't feel good to suppress that much chakra" Temari countered.

"True, it isn't particularly pleasant; it feels like a lot like having your blood turned to jelly and forced through your veins like slush," he explained with a cringe.

"If it feels so bad why do you do it?" she asked with concern. "If it's just because you don't want to freak the villagers out then don't worry, I'm sure they'll get used to it soon enough"

"Its fine, I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now so it doesn't bother me too much; it would more than likely hurt like hell to stop suppressing it all so quickly anyway, so I'll remain as I am" he replied casually.

"But we're getting off track here" he said quickly, cutting off Temari before she could retort. "I brought you out here so I could explain the uses of that there chakra sphere; I figured you'd best know how to use it as it is before you have to absorb it" he explained.

"Wait, hold up a second and explain this whole absorbing thing" interjected Temari.

"Don't worry that isn't important right now, you can absorb it later, preferably once you have practiced using it while its outside of your body" Shukaku said quickly.

"What do you mean once I've practiced using it, what am I going to do with a sphere of your chakra?" she asked in irritation.

"I was getting to that, jeez, can't you just let me explain without interruption!" he exclaimed.

Temari huffed and crossed her arms, looking at Shukaku in both annoyance and expectance.

"Thankyou, now as I was saying, you will need to practice how to use the sphere before you absorb it. To use the sphere you will require the ability to access your Yin chakra, by allowing your Yin chakra to flow into the sphere you will be able to use it"

"And what exactly will I be able to do with it?" Temari asked sharply.

"I am so glad you asked," he said happily. "When combined with your own Yin chakra, the sphere, which is a solid construct of my own Yin chakra, can be given solid form. This means that you can potentially manipulate that sphere into whatever you might need whenever you need it"

"Can it give me a chakra massage?" Temari asked bluntly.

"No it can't, stop asking stupid questions" he retorted. "The sphere can take basic forms, for now anyway, such as a bigger sphere, a platform, spear, cube, simple things and such. The more you practice with it the easier it will become and the more complex you can make things, once you are good enough at manipulating it you can absorb it, that's where the real fun will come into play"

"Once you've absorbed it, it will remain in your system permanently, waiting for you to manipulate it with your Yin chakra. However, once it's inside you, it will act differently; since it will technically be a part of you, it will act automatically to specific things such as your thoughts and in your defence. I use the exact same method for my automatic defence, and I even managed to create the same response in Gaara," he explained.

"So you're giving me an automatic defence?" Temari asked sceptically.

"If you want it, yes, but it's entirely up to you," he answered.

"Will it be sand like yours and Gaara's?"

"I highly doubt it, me and Gaara both have a more active affinity for earth, hence the sand; since you only possess an affinity for wind it would make sense that the Yin chakra will use that element for your defence. I'd say you're very lucky in that regard since wind is one of the more powerful elements and is highly plentiful wherever you go"

"I thought your main affinity was wind," Temari stated.

"Well, no it isn't, but I am still the most powerful wind user in the elemental nations, aside from my brother Kurama"

"Kurama?"

"Oh, you would know him as the Kyuubi, probably not for any good reasons either"

"Yeah, he was always depicted as a destructive force of nature, up until his death of course" Temari replied casually.

Shukaku gave her a confused look, head tilt and all. "What do you mean his death?" he asked curiously.

"The fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi when it attacked Konoha 14 years ago," she answered.

"And you believe that? You people honestly believe that the strongest of the Bijuu, immortal beings of pure chakra, can simply be killed by one man; don't you ever stop and actually think about these things?" he asked in disbelief.

"Well if he isn't dead then where is he? I mean it's not like it's possible to seal him away if he's so powerful"

"Ever heard of the Uzumaki clan?"

"Isn't that Naruto's last name, I didn't know he had a clan"

"He doesn't, at least not anymore. The Uzumaki clan was mostly wiped out and now only a handful of them remain, meaning that there is still a handful of people who are physically capable of being the jinchuuriki of my brother"

"You mean…Naruto is?"

"Yep, my big brother is locked away in that annoying little brat; sometimes I actually wonder if I should laugh or feel pity for him" Shukaku said thoughtfully. "Anyway, we're getting off track again. You need to start practicing with your Yin chakra, and then you need to practice using the sphere"

"How do I even use my Yin chakra, I don't even think I know what it feels like" Temari asked hesitantly.

"Remember how before I opened your gates you had to look inside yourself for chakra?" he asked, Temari nodded in reply. "Well this time you have to look into that seal I gave you, inside it should be the evenly separated forms of your chakra; look for the one that feels exactly like the chakra sphere"

"What other forms of chakra are in my seal?"

"Well most of it should be your natural wind nature chakra, a good portion will be your internal chakra, then you have the Yin and Yang chakras, and you should have some minor access to your physical and spiritual chakras as well. I wouldn't use your internal chakra for anything other than directing it to heal something, nor would I suggest you use Yang chakra; under no circumstances are you allowed to use your physical and spiritual chakras" he said sternly.

"Why can't I use Yang, spiritual, or physical chakra?"

"Because I have invested far too much time and effort into your life for you to just throw it away by doing something stupid and naïve; that and your brothers would never let me live it down for as long they lived" he answered with a shudder.

Temari lunged forward childishly and hugged Shukaku with a laugh. "Aww, you do care, that's so cute!" she exclaimed with a smile.

"Temari, do you want another massage?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Yes!" she answered quickly.

"Then get off of me, I will not suffer such derogatory actions"

"Oh whatever, Mr high and mighty, so how is this training going to work?"

"It's simple really, you're going to stay out here until nightfall, at which point you will return to the house and inform me of your progress. Then I can give you tips on how to improve and so on and so forth" he explained lazily.

"And what will you be doing?" Temari asked with a glare.

"I will be at home, eating ice cream and keeping a general watch over the desert; someone has to make sure that at least some of those genin actually return alive"

"So while I'm stuck out here training you get to sit back and relax for four days?" she asked angrily.

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up; but don't worry so much, I'm not completely heartless" he said as he walked up to her.

He reached out and gently ran a finger over her exposed seal, an action that received a quiet whimper from Temari. "You get one full body massage every evening for the next four days, but only if you practice" he said before walking back to the village.

Temari looked down and glared at the small glowing chakra sphere in her hand. As far as she was concerned, this entire thing sounded ridiculous, especially the thought of absorbing it. But if it got her more chakra massages then by Kami she would try.

_'Now if only I knew how to look inside my seal' _she thought to herself.


	15. Chapter 15

Authors Notes:

The new chapter has arrived. This chapter is the main starting point for some of the unanswered questions to finally be answered. I would also like to point out that I have practically given up on attempting to figure out what the actual story plot is for this thing, so unless i dream up a fantastic idea this fanfic will simply be a jumble of humor and awkwardness that i hope will be enjoyed.

Any and all reviews are much appreciated, i hope to receive more soon. And a random thank you to all those who have followed this story so far.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

><p>Temari growled at the glowing orb of chakra, squeezing it tighter in a futile attempt to crush it. It had been four days since Shukaku had made her start training with the chakra sphere and she still couldn't use it properly; the only thing she had managed to do was change the size of the sphere and even that wasn't by much.<p>

"Growling at it won't work, it's not a school kid and you're not a teacher," Shukaku yelled from around 30 feet away.

Temari glared hatefully and growled at him instead.

"I ain't a school kid either, now calm down and focus," he said with a blank stare.

"That's real easy for you to say while standing over there, you don't know how frustrating this is," she yelled back.

"I had to learn how to do it as well; I'll have you know that the only person to find this task easy was Gaara, and even that can be disproved on technicalities"

"But you're a Bijuu, stuff like this is a cakewalk for you" she stated angrily.

"It is now, but I was also young once and I had to learn things the hard just like you; now shut up and get back to training!" he ordered.

Temari huffed and took a deep relaxing breath. Turning back to the chakra sphere, she attempted to manipulate it once again. Looking inside the seal, something she had found to be particularly difficult to get the hang of, she found the collection of all the separate forms of her chakra. As expected, most of the seal was filled with the calm flowing wind nature chakra that filled most of her body, along with a good portion of her internal chakra; but looking a little further revealed the other, less noticeable forms.

A small section was glowing pure white and flowed hastily through the seal; she had quickly determined this as the yang chakra and made sure not to draw from it. Flowing slowly and smoothly around the yang chakra was the dark purplish yin chakra, its flow slowing down its impatient opposite; this was what she was looking for, unfortunately it was also the more difficult to draw out. Since it was directly effecting the flow of yang chakra, it was near impossible to draw out any reasonable amount of yin chakra without taking some of the other with it.

Unlike the surrounding forms of chakra, the yin and yang forms were stubborn and insistent on what they wanted to do. The yang chakra wanted to rush through the seal and into her body where it would quickly dissipate into her normal chakra, while the yin chakra wanted to slowly flow around its opposite carelessly until it met the same fate. Neither wanted to be deviated from their path and were difficult to draw out.

From how Shukaku had explained it, after Temari asked about the yin and yang chakra's dissipating, the yin and yang forms of chakra worked much the same as spiritual and physical chakra. While spiritual and physical chakra fused together to make internal chakra, the life force of everything, yin and yang chakra would dissipate into natural chakra, the ethereal form of body and soul.

He had also gone on to explain that while yin and yang chakra were often called the physical and spiritual energies, they were actually separate; apparently he couldn't really blame people for getting it wrong since they were so similar in function and almost impossible to differentiate. Since Temari wasn't allowed to draw on the pure forms of physical and spiritual energy, she didn't care all too much if she couldn't find it in the seal.

Despite the rather educational lecture on chakra, she still found it incredibly hard to draw from her yin chakra; it was almost as stubborn as she was on a bad day. Reaching for the dark purple and slow flowing chakra, Temari tried to guide it out of the seal and down her arm. Her face twisted into a determined look as she managed to flow a small amount of yin chakra down her arm and into her hand, concentrating intensely as she slowly bled the chakra into the small glowing sphere.

Temari had been expecting one of several things to occur once she managed to mix her own yin chakra with the chakra sphere. It could have merely expanded slightly as it had with all her previous attempts, or it could have exploded in her face; she wasn't expecting anything drastic to happen since she hadn't used all too much yin chakra. So when the sphere suddenly became several tons heavier, it was…shocking to say the least.

Due to its immediate increase of weight, Temari couldn't hold it up, causing her to drop it. It impacted the ground hard enough to make her stumble slightly and create a large cloud of sand and dust. She began coughing loudly until the cloud disappeared, at which point she glared at the small sphere that was now laying in a small but sizable crater. With a harsh swipe of her hand, a small and powerful blade of wind was shot at the glowing orb.

Thanks to the ridiculous chakra control exercises Shukaku made her do in her free time, Temari's chakra control had gone through the roof, allowing her to manipulate her new and improved chakra with deadly ease. She had to hand it to him; he might have been a complete asshole at times, but he definitely knew his stuff.

"Well, this wasn't the desired result, but it was a somewhat successful result either way" Shukaku said as he appeared next to Temari. "In theory, increasing its weight this much should be one of the more difficult things to accomplish. I am surprised you managed this without any proper instructions"

"It would help if you just told me what I supposed to be doing. No matter how hard I try I can't force my yin chakra to do what I want!" Temari exclaimed in frustration.

"What do you mean 'force'? You can't force yin chakra to do stuff, that's like trying to get Kankuro to stop reading Icha-Icha; it just ain't possible"

"Kankuro still reads Icha-Icha? I told him if I caught him reading that smut again I'd kill him," she growled out angrily.

"And I bet you haven't caught him with it once since you made that threat, am I right?" Shukaku asked with a chuckle. "And it's not like you can say anything, I know for a fact that you have one of those books hidden away somewhere in your room"

"Anyway, back to the whole forcing yin chakra to things; have you been trying to do that this entire time?" he asked in slight seriousness, ignoring Temari's obvious blush.

"Well not the _entire_ time" she answered. "That last time I tried I was guiding my yin chakra with my normal chakra"

"And how much of your yin chakra did you pump into the sphere?"

"As much as I could take from the seal," she replied nonchalantly as she turned away from him.

Temari waited patiently for Shukaku to start laughing, or at least comment on how pathetic the amount of yin chakra she had used was. When she didn't hear anything from him for a full minute she became worried, an emotion that didn't mix well with Shukaku in any possible way. Turning back, she was greeted by the shocked and wide eyed expression of Shukaku as he tried to process exactly what she had just said.

"Ok new plan, you are not to attempt to do anything like that without proper instructions; I also owe you a favour for letting you try this without me explaining what to do" he said.

"What are you going on about now, why do you owe me a favour?" Temari queried, her eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Temari, you aren't supposed to use that much yin chakra; you only need enough yin chakra to command the sphere, and you just used enough to disrupt its entire structure"

"What would happen if it was disrupted?"

"It would implode, violently; considering how much of my yin chakra it's made of, it would more or less take a good portion of the desert with it, including Suna" he explained calmly.

"Well then, since we don't want that to happen, would you mind telling me how to command this bloody thing with just yin chakra?" she asked, yelling the last part angrily.

"It's simple, draw on as little yin chakra as you can without forcing it; with how much chakra you have you should only be able to take a drop worth at most. Once you have it, simply guide it to the sphere, whatever you are thinking at the time it will try to replicate by using the sphere"

"Ok, but what happens if it can't replicate the thought?"

"It will do nothing, the sphere won't react whatsoever aside from getting heavier. However, should you pump too much into it without a clear command, it will implode like I said earlier" he answered.

"Why would it get heavier, if it's just yin chakra shouldn't it be as light, if not lighter, than the sphere?"

"No, yin chakra is a dense substance; the reason why the chakra sphere isn't currently throwing off the planets gravity is because I condensed it and manipulated it in such a way that it became a neutral force. That sphere is dense enough to increase the gravity of the immediate area by around 8 or so times the natural amount"

"And you let me mess around with it without telling me this!" Temari screamed.

"Oh calm down, me and my siblings used to throw Bijuudama's around like child's toys, and trust me when I tell you that those things could literally reshape the landscape if not handled correctly; I suppose they reshape the landscape when they are used properly anyway, so that doesn't really matter" he replied casually.

"What the hell is a bijuudama?"

"It's just the most amazingly awesome and powerful technique of the Bijuu, capable of levelling mountain ranges and carving canyons into the very earth!" Shukaku exclaimed with childish joy, reminding Temari of how Kankuro would talk about Icha-Icha.

"Ok, I get it, powerful, canyons, magic and what not" she mumbled uncaringly.

"Fine, ignore me, it's not like I'm talking about anything important" he shot back with a pout.

"Can we just get back to the sphere thing; I would like to try using your advice"

"Sorry, but no can do. Thanks to you pumping so much yin chakra into the sphere, it's now quite dangerous for you to try anything with it until it has corrected itself"

"Then what am I supposed to do with it, I can't leave it out here and I sure as hell can't carry it as it is"

Shukaku sighed. Walking over to the sphere, he leant down and picked it up effortlessly. Tossing it carelessly from hand to hand until he threw it full force into the ground. It tore into the sand and disappeared beneath the earth, causing a large tremor to shake the ground as it went.

"There, now we can come back later and get it back once it's not an unstable and highly dangerous implosion bomb" he said as he began walking back to the village. "Now hurry up and follow me, I still need to know what the rules are for this flag part of the chunin exam"

Temari hung her head in defeat. It was becoming slightly annoying how Shukaku could just brush everything off as if it didn't matter, as if taking things seriously was just too much effort. With a deep breath, she walked off after him; she had to make sure that he didn't slaughter all the genin tomorrow, no matter how fun it might be.

* * *

><p>Shukaku and Temari stood calmly at the front gates, Gaara standing emotionlessly to the side, and the noticeably smaller group of genin standing in front of them. Shukaku was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to actually kill any of the genin, but Temari had used her favour from earlier against him.<p>

Temari was surprised that of the 30 odd teams that had been sent out, only 11 had returned. She knew that Shukaku hadn't killed any teams trying to get a flag, but that didn't mean he didn't pummel them and leave them for dead. So far, only 9 teams had shot off their signal flares and been collected, those that were left in the desert would just have to find their own way back or die; Temari didn't much care which of the two options they took.

Gaara wasn't thinking about the genin, or the exams, or anything else of real importance. Instead, his thoughts were exclusively set on how long it would take before he could challenge Naruto to a ramen eating contest. He was confident in his ability to give his friend a challenge, and if he was lucky, he might just beat the exuberant blonde. Until Naruto got back however, he was stuck overseeing the chunin exam and making sure that at least some teams were let into the final test.

Of the three of them, not one noticed the collective killing intent and numerous glares that were being sent directly at Shukaku. The most intense of the KI was coming from the one Iwa team, the members of which were covered in bright orange paint, while their hair had been dyed pink. Temari sent a questioning look to Shukaku, who was looking off into the distance and whistling innocently.

"Ok then, will the teams who collected a flag please step forward" Temari ordered.

The Iwa team and one team from Konoha stepped forward; oddly enough, they had stepped forward in such a way that it put Temari between them and Shukaku. After a few minutes of no one else stepping forward, Temari became suspicious and glared at the sand demon.

"Why are there only two teams with flags?" she asked dangerously.

Shukaku crossed his arms and gave her a stern expression. "They were the only teams who were worthy of a flag, for not only did they have the necessary skill to receive one, but they also had the will and persistence to keep fighting for one even after being absolutely pummelled. Plus I kinda figured the Iwa team deserved one after surviving the ass kicking I gave them" he explained, scratching his shoulder sheepishly at the last part.

Temari didn't even bother to honour his response with a look of disbelief. Instead, she calmly walked over to him and punch him in the face, taking the remaining three flags that were tied to his belt as he fell. Most of the genin watched on with wide eyes as she turned back to look at them, the Iwa and Konoha team being the exceptions as they stared at Temari as if she were Kami reincarnate.

"Since Shukaku failed to hand out all of the flags, I am going to propose a bonus round of sorts," Temari said, eliciting several groans from the genin. "The first three teams to return here with an ice cold drink for me will receive the flags, so hop to it!" she yelled.

Within seconds, all but four teams had run off to collect a drink. The teams that remained consisted of the Iwa and Konoha team, as well as a team from Suna and another team from Kusagakure. Without any warning, Temari threw two of the three flags to the teams, each of which stared at her in confusion.

"You guys weren't stupid enough to run off to complete an utterly ridiculous task, the last flag will go to whoever gets back first," she said, answering the unasked question.

Several minutes later, Temari found herself sitting down on Shukaku's back while said unfortunate bastard muttered several choice words about stubborn little girls. She took a sip of the ice cold glass of water that she held in her hand, smiling appreciatively at the Suna team that had retrieved it for her.

"Now that all five flags have been handed out, the teams without flags will be required to fight in a preliminary round. So be at training ground 4 tomorrow at 10am and we will see how things go from there," she said lazily.

The genin grumbled and walked back to wherever they were staying for the night. Temari stood up and brushed the sand off her clothes, ignoring Shukaku as he too stood up and did the same, only with numerous curses mumbled quietly.

"I hate you, you know that," he muttered with a glare.

"I'm sure you do, now hurry up and get moving; we still have to proctor the preliminary round tomorrow and I want another massage," she ordered cheerfully.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that you're just using me to get chakra massages"

"Aww, sweetie, you know that's exactly what I'm doing; now move"

"Actually" began Gaara, who up until now had been standing off to the side quietly. "I need to speak with the both of you in my office; meet me there in 10 minutes" he commanded before disappearing in spiral of sand.

* * *

><p>Gaara watched Shukaku and Temari with a keen eye. They had all been sitting in his office for 20 minutes now and not a sound had been made; he could tell that Shukaku was quickly reaching the end of his rope when it came to patience. Temari wasn't fairing much better, her calm demeanor being betrayed by the occasional twitch of her eye.<p>

"Gaara, I know exactly what you're doing, and I'm telling you right now that it's a bad idea," Shukaku stated lazily.

"What did you want to talk about anyway?" Temari asked in an annoyed tone.

"I wanted to inform you that you will not be proctoring the preliminaries of the chunin exams; Baki will be handling that to make up for the first test" Gaara said calmly.

"What will we be doing?" Shukaku asked.

"The both of you will be returning here tomorrow for a meeting regarding my trip to Konohagakure. You will be coming with me and therefor plans must be made involving you," he answered.

"Wait, you're bringing me along? Wont that be dangerous and stuff, with me being an unsealed Bijuu and all?" Shukaku asked in concern.

"I agree, it would cause issues once they realised what Shukaku is" Temari said.

"I am fully aware of this, which is why I have made plans to get around such issues" Gaara replied. "But those can wait for tomorrow; right now I need to speak with Shukaku, alone" he added with a serious look directed at his sister.

Temari nodded in understanding, stood up from her chair and walked to the door. She gave Gaara a questioning glance before exiting the office and closing the door behind her. Gaara set his gaze back onto Shukaku who had for once gained a serious attitude.

"What happened?" Shukaku asked sternly.

"Nothing, but something will happen" Gaara replied. He took a deep breath before continuing. "I am telling Temari, tomorrow, after the meeting," he said calmly.

"I thought we agreed to leave her ignorant to it for as long as possible, so why tell her now?" he asked with slight irritation.

"Me and Baki both agree that if we were to wait any longer Temari would react worse than she would if we told her now," Gaara answered.

"She's going to react badly no matter when she's told, doing it this early will just make things more difficult!" Shukaku exclaimed in frustration.

"You're going to have to tell her soon, especially since you can't continue with your plans until she signs it," Gaara countered.

"I know, ok. I understand exactly what needs to happen, but there is no easy way to do it. As soon as she finds out she's gunna hit the fucking roof and chances are she'll kick my ass three ways to Sunday," he yelled.

"If you explain everything to her clearly, I'm sure she will be understanding"

"Not even the calmest and most understanding person in the world would be able to take this news without hitting me at least once"

"Temari will be understanding, she will just need time to process the information," Gaara reasoned.

"And within that 'processing time' she will be trying to kill me or worse yet, she'll try to castrate me"

"I think you're over exaggerating things"

"Gaara, I'm a thousand years old; I have been in contact with every kind of women this world has to offer, and trust me when I say that not one of them would let me walk away unscathed, even after I explained my reasons"

"If you are so afraid of the outcome then why did you make the deal? Why agree to something that you seem so against?" Gaara asked emotionlessly. He personally didn't see the problem, and he'd be damned if he was going to let Shukaku back out of it now.

"You know damn well why I'm doing this!" Shukaku yelled. He sighed and leaned back into his seat. "If either of my sisters found out what I was doing here they would kill me, then they would never let me live down the fact that I was being too kind"

"Look, I understand that you don't want her to know just yet, but she is my sister; this deal has just as much to do with me as it does with you and her, so I _will _be telling her tomorrow and you _will _be explaining everything to her. I expect you two to have things settled between each other by the time we leave for Konoha," Gaara stated sternly.

"What do you expect me to say? Oh, hey Temari, I'm real sorry to keep this from you for so long, but your mother and me signed an agreement with the Shinigami and now you belong to me. That sounds like a brilliant fucking plan!" he screamed sarcastically.

"I don't see why not; after all, did you not say it wouldn't matter when she's told about it since she will react badly anyway. Surely the way you tell her shouldn't make a difference"

"Gaara, do not try to lecture me on things; I am both older and wiser than you will ever be, so I think I know better than a 14 year old Kazekage"

"And yet you are the one who is stressing over something that should be trivial for an immortal and powerful being such as yourself. Have you not taken slaves before?" Gaara asked curiously.

"Hell no! I slaughter people for fun, why on earth would I keep one as a pet?"

"Are you calling Temari a pet?" Gaara inquired dangerously.

Shukaku paled and gulped loudly. "No" he replied weakly.

"But you just said…"

"I know what I said" he interrupted quickly. "Look, I'm just not very happy with this arrangement"

"She won't be either, but this needs to be done; she will sign the contract even if I have to force her to do it. I am not about to let the alternative become reality" Gaara stated firmly.

Shukaku glared at Gaara and released a small amount of KI. "And are you doing that for her, or for you?" he asked seriously.

"For her. I will not let one of my precious people simply die when it is within my power to stop it"

An exasperated sigh escaped Shukaku as he rubbed his eyes. "Fine, we will tell her tomorrow; I'll bring the contract with me and we will give her a very basic explanation of what it's all about. Once she has had the time she needs to process the harsh reality of things, I will explain it in its entirety," he said calmly.

"Why not explain all of it at once?"

"Sometimes it's better to get through all the bad before getting any of the good, and it will help keep her from having some form of internal conflict" Shukaku answered with a smirk. "Anyway, we can deal with that tomorrow. Right now I have a massage to give and you have paperwork to do"

Gaara gave Shukaku a weak glare as the demon walked to the door and exited his office. Hopefully things wouldn't go too bad tomorrow, but knowing Temari made such a hope difficult to maintain logically. He took a deep breath to calm himself, before creating a small army of miniature tanuki form Shukaku's that then proceeded to do his paperwork at record speed. He himself lounged back in his chair with a large of bowl of ramen in his hand.

_'Who said being a Kage couldn't be enjoyable at times' _he thought smugly as he slurped up a mouthful of noodles.

Things were definitely going his way, even if Shukaku and Temari had to suffer for it.

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><p><strong>PS.<strong>

**I hope the whole slave thing served as a welcome change from the drastically over used 'forced marriage' plot that Temari is usually stuck with.**


	16. Chapter 16

Authors Notes:

I not so proudly present the next chapter in this not well thought out story of mine. I apologize if this chapter is not particularly enjoyable, but i really didn't have any idea on how to write this section better. Hopefully i will be able to make it up to however few readers that stick around for the coming chapters. I would also like to note that the next chapter will be the start of the "Konoha ark" of sorts, which means i will have a lot more well known characters to work with; hopefully this means i will be able to write more enjoyable chapters for you guys.

To anyone who doesn't know, i have another Naruto fanfic i'm working on, please go and read it if you wish and review what you think about it so far. Any and all reviews for this story are encouraged and appreciated, as are any suggestions you might have.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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><p>The air was thick with tension as everyone sat quietly in Gaara's office. Said red head was calmly observing the handful of people in front of him with a keen eye, making sure to raise the tension further every few seconds by slurping another mouthful of ramen from one of the many bowls laying on his desk.<p>

His blue-green eyes slowly moved from person to person, never staying on the one individual for too long, yet never leaving someone unnoticed. He observed the small team of four ANBU ninja that were sitting together on the left side of the room, as well as his sister, Shukaku, Baki, and Kankuro, who all sat on the other side. It was clear that the ANBU were not too pleased about Shukaku's presence, but since Gaara had ordered it, they couldn't do anything about it.

Temari, while not particularly liking the obvious glares sent at Shukaku, was managing to distract herself by staring questioningly at said Bijuu. She didn't know why, but ever since they had woken up, he had been acting…strange. He didn't say anything to her until she spoke first, he seemed to refuse to look at her directly, and he had started carrying around an incredibly large scroll that he refused to let her look at.

The scroll itself was something that Temari was most curious about, along with everyone else in the room aside from Gaara, who never seemed to be surprised or shocked by anything that Shukaku did. The scroll was large; around three feet long, and was almost as thick as Shukaku's shoulders were wide. It was covered in glistening black silk with emerald trimming, which protected what was likely the highest quality of parchment within.

She was also surprised by how protective Shukaku was of the scroll, since he literally ripped an ANBU's head off for attempting to confiscate it as stolen. The sudden act of brutality would have also surprised her, but she had grown up with Gaara who had done much worse for far less. It did raise the question however, of what exactly was contained within the scroll, or just as importantly, where did he get it.

Temari knew that he had been a crazed lunatic that slaughtered people for a laugh, so she didn't put it past him for it being stolen; but she also knew that it would have to have been stolen more than a century ago, and so trying to pin such a crime on him was pointless if not impossible. That didn't mean she wasn't going to everything in her power to find out what it was though.

"So" Gaara began. "Do we all know why we're here?" he asked cheerfully.

"Yes lord Kazekage; we are here to discuss the details of your trip to Konohagakure" one of the ANBU answered quickly.

"Correct, have a cookie" Gaara said, throwing the ANBU a cookie with a smile.

Silence filled the room as everyone stared at Gaara blankly, all attempting to comprehend what had just occurred. Temari quickly gave up and rested her face on her hands in defeat, Kankuro following shortly after her. Baki joined them not too long after, along with the ANBU team, leaving only Shukaku staring quizzically at the red headed Kage.

"Do I get a cookie?" he asked innocently, making Temari's desire to hit him grow significantly.

"Sure" Gaara said happily, throwing Shukaku a cookie as well.

Temari quickly snatched the cookie out of the air and crushed before backhanding Shukaku, all in one fluent movement.

"Both of you better start taking this more seriously or so help me I will have Kankuro sew you together," she threatened harshly.

"Fine, but you owe me a cookie," Shukaku muttered childishly.

"Yes, well anyway, I will be travelling to Konoha soon and you are all to be my escort" Gaara explained, his smile never leaving his face.

"And what of the Ichibi? Surely you do not intend to take an unsealed Bijuu into another village, they are likely to capture it," one of the ANBU said.

"You sound just as pessimistic as another unfortunate ninja I met in this room, and I'm gunna respond in much the same manner; they can fucking try" Shukaku said calmly.

"Shukaku is correct. I do not believe the Hokage would dare risk the wrath of a Bijuu simply to capture it, and even if they did try I do not think they have anyone strong enough to match him," Baki assured.

"We do not need to worry about any Konoha ninja that is loyal to the Hokage, I have made preparations for Shukaku to be untouchable without there being an act of war between our villages," Gaara explained.

"And what exactly did you do to manage that?" Temari asked curiously.

Gaara's smile grew wider as he threw a scroll to his sister. Temari glanced at the scroll and was surprised to see the wind daimyo's seal on it. She quickly opened it and read it out loud for everyone.

"I, the daimyo of wind country, here by offer the Ichibi no Tanuki the protection and support of my country and Sunagakure in exchange for his acceptance of an official role in the political workings of the country," she read out. "Should you agree to these terms you will be appointed as the official 'protector of wind country' and be given diplomatic immunity so long as you comply with the guidelines set below"

Shukaku snatched the scroll out of her hands and quickly read over everything, his eyes quickly widening in fear as he turned to glare at Gaara.

"This says I'm not allowed to kill people. Do you honestly think I'm gunna agree to this crap?" he yelled angrily.

"It says you are not permitted to kill innocents of wind country, I am sure that you can satisfy your bloodlust by killing off traitors and other ninja that attempt to sneak into the desert. If not, then just don't worry about it; as we have just stated, you are powerful enough to not really worry about us with or without official diplomatic immunity. This is merely an easier option to use, but not necessary" Gaara replied.

"But it says I have to attend meetings and stuff. I don't want to do that!" Shukaku whined.

"They aren't compulsory, so long as you show up for one or two you should be fine. I myself tend to dodge most of the meetings," Gaara said with a smile.

"Do I get anything else other than whatever the hell this diplomatic immunity thingy is?" he asked.

Temari reached over, snatched the scroll back from Shukaku, and began reading it again.

"It says that once you accept the position, you will be officially known as the rightful owner of wind country. You will maintain diplomatic immunity, be allowed to do as you please so long as it doesn't involve the death and destruction of the inhabitants of wind country; it also says they are willing to pay you with whatever you want should it be in their ability" Temari said.

"Why the hell would the daimyo go to so much effort just to appease me of all people?" Shukaku asked in confusion.

"I believe it has something to do with the fact that our daimyo is hoping to get in your favour. He probably thinks he will gain some form of reward from you, or he will try to stab you in the back and seal you into someone to use as a weapon," Baki answered.

"Hmm, I might have to kill him before he tries something stupid like that" Shukaku muttered thoughtfully.

"You can't kill the daimyo Shukaku," Temari said lazily.

"Of course I can, it can't be that difficult to kill an old man" he replied.

"The new daimyo is actually quite young" one of the ANBU corrected.

"Even better. Nothing beats a stuck up punk crying out for help right before I kill him," Shukaku said enthusiastically.

"Can I watch?" Gaara asked innocently.

"Gaara, don't encourage him!" Temari exclaimed.

"Can I watch too?" Baki asked.

"No! No one is watching Shukaku kill the daimyo," Temari said crossly.

"Fine, I'll take photos and post them around. I'll charge extra for signed copies," the Ichibi said with a grin.

"You're not killing anyone!" Temari yelled angrily.

"But I want too" Shukaku whined pitifully.

"Shut. Up" she said through gritted teeth.

"I think it might be wise to continue our discussion on my soon to be trip to Konoha" Gaara stated calmly.

"There isn't much more to talk about; I'll just accept this diplomacy thingy and they can't touch me, and no one else here will have a problem with Konoha. So long as some moronic ninja of theirs doesn't try to claim glory by trying to kill me we will be fine," Shukaku said nonchalantly.

"He does have a point lord Kazekage. This meeting really was only to verify who was going with you and how we were going to get the Ichibi into the village without conflict" the only female ANBU in the room said.

"Hmm, that is true" Gaara said. "In that case, you and your team are dismissed for now. I will see you at the village gate the day after the chunin exams finish"

The four man ANBU team bowed to Gaara before all disappearing, leaving Gaara, Shukaku, Baki, Temari, and an unusually quiet Kankuro sitting in the room. Temari tried to stand up and leave but was quickly forced to sit back down by Baki, his hand firmly on her shoulder.

"You need to stay here," Baki said sternly before walking out of the office with Kankuro, who gave Shukaku a glare as he closed the door.

"Um, what's going on?" Temari asked worriedly.

She looked at Gaara and noticed that he was no longer smiling; instead, he was staring at Shukaku with the most serious expression she had ever seen on him. She turned and looked at Shukaku, only to see that he was staring at the large scroll he had brought along with him. He stood up with a defeated sigh and put the massive scroll on Gaara's desk, right in front of Temari.

"Temari, this will be difficult for you to cope with, but I need you to remain calm," Gaara said calmly.

"Ok" she replied hesitantly.

Gaara took a deep breath and prepared for whatever kind of ass kicking he was likely to receive. "You are no longer a ninja of Sunagakure," he said quickly.

The silence was deafening as Temari stared blankly at her little brother. Gaara waited patiently for a response while Shukaku slowly moved away from what he knew was a ticking time bomb. Temari continued to stare blankly at her brother, unknowingly increasing the tension that hung in the air. After several agonising minutes of silent staring, Temari finally broke into a fit of hysterical laughing.

"Oh, that's a good one Gaara. You even got Baki and Kankuro to get in on too; I was wondering why Kankuro was being so quiet. I didn't think you would pull a prank like this but it seems that Naruto guy really got to you huh," she said after gaining control of her laughing.

"Temari, this isn't a joke. You are being given away and stripped of your shinobi rank," Gaara explained sadly.

"Wait, what the hell do you mean given away? Are you marrying me off to some pompous royal pricks son?" she screamed in disbelief.

"Well I wouldn't really call my father royalty, and I certainly wouldn't call him a prick, but I am technically his son," Shukaku said with a thoughtful expression.

The quickly growing rage in Temari instantly disappeared as the colour drained from her face. She looked at Shukaku with wide eyes before turning back to her brother with a look of desperation.

"Please don't tell me you're marrying me off to him," she pleaded weakly.

"Of course not" Gaara replied.

"Thank Kami," she said, letting out the breath she was holding.

"You're being given to him as a slave," he corrected.

"Can we not say slave, it is such a dull and demeaning word; how about we go with the slightly more elegant, but not really, vassal," Shukaku suggested hopefully.

The horrified expression that Temari's face had twisted into was enough to make Gaara and Shukaku concerned for her mental health. The very sudden, and very powerful, burst of wind that sent Shukaku through a wall was a pleasant and comforting occurrence that let Gaara know that his sister was not mentally broken.

"You aren't joking about this, are you?" she asked tentatively.

"No" Gaara answered simply.

"That really hurt you know. You are so lucky I like you or else I'd kill you for that," Shukaku grumbled as he walked back into the office.

"I think I deserve an explanation for why I've been sold to one of the Bijuu as a slave," Temari said crossly.

"Vassal, not slave, and you were given to me, not sold" Shukaku corrected.

Another powerful blast of wind put Shukaku through another part of the same wall as Temari glared expectantly at her little brother.

"Right, explanation" Gaara said nervously. "Well, I suppose the easy explanation would be for me to tell you that Shukaku made a deal with the Shinigami, which involved our mother, and led to you being given to him as a sla…vassal"

"And how would our mother be involved in a deal with the Shinigami and Ichibi?" Temari asked calmly, something that was beginning to worry Gaara.

"Ok, I'll tell you, just don't freak the fuck out ok" Gaara began, receiving a nod from his sister. "Ok, when Shukaku was sealed into me during childbirth, our mother's chakra interfered, sealing a part of her soul inside the seal as well. Actually, she is still sealed within my chakra and is the reason why I've always had an automatic defence" he explained.

"Anyway, Shukaku made a deal with her, in which he would wait for the right time to escape from the seal so as to not kill me, and heal me once he was out; in return our mother gave him you"

"And the scroll?" she asked.

"Contract of the Shinigami; you have to sign it for the entire deal to be complete" Gaara answered.

"And what if I don't sign it?"

"You die and your soul gets claimed by the Shinigami," Shukaku answered as he staggered back into the room.

"I could deal with that," Temari said carelessly.

"No, you will not" Gaara said harshly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Temari, you will sign the contract, even if I have to force you to do it," he stated.

"So I have to sign this contract or die, but if I do sign the contract I get stuck as his slave?" she asked, pointing to Shukaku.

"Yes" both Gaara and Shukaku said in unison.

Temari stopped and considered her options, of which there was none. She could either sign the contract and pretend to serve Shukaku happily, which would make her kill herself, or not sign the contract, be forced against her will to sign the contract by Gaara, and detest Shukaku for as long as she lived. All in all, she was fucked.

With an irritated growl, she reached out and opened the large scroll, making sure to glare at the two names already signed on the paper in blood, Shukaku and Karura. She pulled out a kunai from the weapon pouch strapped to her leg and calmly cut her thumb on the blade before hastily signing her name on the scroll. Once she was done, she picked up the scroll and dropped in Shukaku's lap before walking out of the office.

"Well that didn't go anywhere near as badly as you said it would" Gaara said cheerfully.

Shukaku gave the red head a blank stare. "Gaara, this is naught but the calm before the literal shit storm that I assure you will tear me limb from bloody limb with a crazed grin on its face. The only reason she isn't attacking me right now is because she is waiting for me to go to sleep; I bet you I will wake up missing a few important pieces" he said calmly.

"And yet you don't appear to be all too worried" the Kazekage said curiously.

"She's my official vassal now; I'm not going to just throw her away, which means I'm stuck with her for who the fuck knows how long. As it stands, I feel I kind of deserve whatever she dishes out. Who knows, maybe she will get it all out of her system and we can actually go back to getting along" Shukaku said casually.

"You don't plan to take advantage of your rights as her master?" Gaara asked with narrowed eyes.

"Wait, I have rights over her?"

Gaara stared at Shukaku for a good full minute of silence, trying to comprehend the severity of what the Bijuu had just said. He wasn't entirely sure if a being that was over a thousand years old could be as stupid as Shukaku was appearing to be, but if anyone could prove such a thing wrong, it would be Shukaku.

"Shukaku, do you have any idea what a slave actually is?" Gaara asked seriously.

"Um, well I know it has something to do with the whole owning another person thing, but other than that, no, I have no idea what a slave is. Isn't it just like a pet, you know, feed it and let it live with you and that's that?" Shukaku asked innocently.

Gaara stared, and stared, then stared some more; he continued to repeat this for several moments for good measure, until he burst into a fit of laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Shukaku asked in worried confusion.

"I can't believe that you don't know what a slave is, even when you've been around for over a thousand years," Gaara said amongst uncontrollable chuckles.

"I told you, I killed people, I didn't keep them as pets. I did not have a need to learn what a slave is, and I assure you that I do not have need one for whatever they are meant for; I am perfectly self-sufficient" the Ichibi stated firmly.

"Kankuro!" Gaara yelled.

Not ten seconds later, a particularly grumpy looking Kankuro walked into the office and glared at Gaara.

"What?"

"I require your assistance," Gaara said in an overly formal and very Kazekage manner of speaking, reminding Kankuro of their father.

"And what exactly am I helping with?" Kankuro asked in concern.

"It appears that Shukaku here, who as you know is the proud owner of our dear sister, does not know what a slave is, or what rights he has as her master," Gaara explained with a growing smirk.

Kankuro's eyes widened in pure horror as he looked at Shukaku as if he were a murderous monster; somehow, the irony of that particular thought went completely unnoticed by the puppeteer. Without warning, Kankuro slapped Shukaku as hard as he could, knocking him off his chair.

"The fuck was that for?" Shukaku yelled.

"How dare you!" Kankuro said dangerously.

"What?"

"How dare you call yourself a man!"

"I'm not sure I'm following here"

"You have just been given ownership of Temari, my sister, and a drop dead bombshell by any man's standards, and you don't even know what owning her entails. That is an insult to every man that has and will ever live in the elemental nations," Kankuro explained angrily.

"Well technically I'm not a man, so shut up and tell me what the hell a slave does," Shukaku yelled.

"One question; will you take advantage of your rights over Temari?" Kankuro asked seriously.

"Um, no, I suppose" he answered before receiving another devastating slap from Kankuro. "What the hell?"

"Wrong answer. A real man would never pass up an opportunity to take advantage of his slave," Kankuro said angrily.

"I don't know what my rights over a slave are, but I'm like three percent sure that if told Temari exactly what you just told me, she would kill you," Shukaku said lazily. "So here's how this is gunna work; you are going to explain to me what a slave is and what they do, and I won't rat you out to your sister"

"Yeah, you say all that now, but once I'm done explaining things you're gunna feel like a complete retard for not knowing what a slave does" Kankuro said with a mischievous grin.

Gaara picked up a bowl of ramen from his desk and leaned back into his chair, watching his older brother explain the rules and uses of owning a slave to Shukaku, who's eyes were gradually growing wider and wider. Yep, life was going much better than he had planned, so far anyway.


	17. Chapter 17

Authors Notes:

Here is the next chapter, sorry for the wait but i lost the use of my right hand for a little while which made typing extremely difficult; thankfully, i am fine now. I hope you enjoy this chapter as it will be the beginning of the 'Konoha arc' of such, meaning there is much more chaos to be had.

Please for the love of whatever god you might believe in, leave a review, suggestion, or even some snarky remark. You honestly wouldn't believe how much it means to get such things from my readers and once i stop getting any at all i will declare this story dead.

To anyone who wishes to, i encourage you to also check out my other story that i will be updating just as randomly as this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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><p>Shukaku was not particularly pleased with how things had gone so far between him and Temari. He knew she would take the whole slave thing badly, but she had taken it to a level that even he had not expected from her. She wasn't violently trying to murder him which was good, but she wasn't interacting with him either; instead, she chose to ignore him completely and give him the silent treatment, something that he detested with all his being.<p>

There were a few times when he had tried to talk to her and she had attacked him, but these were rare and after losing an arm, Shukaku didn't feel like trying again for a while. He was also forced to suffer through Gaara telling him it was karma that he lost his arm, but that didn't last very long once he simply regrew the limb with his sand; sometimes it was unbelievably fortunate to be a demon made of sand, especially when confronting an angry teenage girl.

All of this had happened over the course of the last week, as they were forced to wait for the chunin exams to officially end before they could depart for Konoha. For an entire week he had been ignored by Temari, lectured by a distraught Kankuro, and laughed at by an overly smug Gaara; he still didn't completely understand why Kankuro was so angry and upset that he didn't know what a slave was or what they could be used for.

So far, nothing the puppet user explained made much sense; sure it would be seen as useful to have someone obey every order you gave them, but he could already do that to whoever the hell he wanted, who was going to go against a Bijuu. Kankuro kept repeating the same word "legally" over and over again, making Shukaku wonder exactly why he should care in any way shape or form about the laws of shinobi. What could they do if he broke them, seal him back away?

Another reason it had taken a week for them to finally start their journey to Konoha, was because they had to wait for a response from the wind daimyo about Shukaku agreeing to the terms of his official position in wind country; needless to say, Shukaku had tried to argue over the not killing people aspect of it all. Luckily, the entire thing hadn't gone so bad, what with the daimyo trying to get on Shukaku's good side at any cost.

So here he was, along with the small group accompanying the Kazekage, walking through the forests leading to Konohagakure. He could literally feel the glare Temari was directing at him and for once in his life actually wished such a thing could just kill him and be done with it. Kankuro wasn't much better, constantly sending him and Temari knowing looks and grins, which had earned him more than a few beatings from Temari already.

Gaara and Baki had been quiet for the most part, except for when they made bets on how long it would take Temari to snap again and hit Kankuro. Baki occasionally sent Shukaku a sympathetic look as he too knew what it was like being on the receiving end of Temari's silent treatment, being her sensei for several years had given him the privilege of knowing the very good and very bad sides of the girl; this was slowly getting closer and closer to the very bad side.

Shukaku himself hadn't said a word since they had left Sunagakure, instead choosing to take the safe road and silently wait for Temari to calm down. He had preoccupied himself for a while by practicing with the scythe he had taken from the immortal guy he buried somewhere in the desert, but the weapon was too odd for there to be an actual style with it. Shukaku assumed that the guy had simply swung it around like a lunatic in the hopes that it would kill someone, which he had to admit wasn't too bad of a plan.

The four ANBU that had been assigned as a part of the group were quiet, as was expected; but they would still send the occasional glare every now and then. Temari's slavery had become a very well-known fact throughout Suna, once again causing most of the population to become excessively angry towards the Ichibi. Shukaku didn't mind too much, there wasn't anything they could do to him, and they definitely couldn't break the slave contract since the scroll had been reclaimed by the Shinigami.

Temari herself was becoming angrier and angrier as the days went on. Being given to Shukaku as a slave was bad enough, but when everyone in her village did nothing but give her sympathetic looks and act as if she was fragile, it made things a hell of a lot worse for her. She felt slightly guilty for how she was reacting towards Shukaku, especially since she knew that he most likely wouldn't treat her or use her as a slave; he may have joked and teased, but he wasn't one to actually force her to do anything, even if he did enjoy killing people.

The few times he had tried to talk to her were actually quite a relief. It was good to know that he was trying to calm her down and help her through the whole ordeal, instead of simply ordering her around like any other man would have done. But that didn't mean she wasn't still angry, something that became evident when she had attacked him every time he tried; she had found it quite amusing when she had severed his arm with her wind chakra, only for him to simply walk away as if nothing had happened.

She wasn't proud of how she was acting, even if it was expected, and she was even less proud of the fact that she was still glaring at the Ichibi as she had been all week. Temari knew that she would have taken the whole thing a lot easier if it had been Gaara actually giving her to Shukaku, but since it had been her mother to make the contract and give her away, it made things more difficult. Although her mother had been alive for the first two or so years of her life, that didn't mean she remembered what the woman was like; it was much harder to learn that you were literally sold by someone you didn't technically know.

It was for this reason that she had been so angry for so long; in fact, she could tell that she would still be angry for a while yet. Shukaku had yet to react violently or otherwise to her actions, something which Temari knew she would have to apologise for at a later date, no matter how much she hated apologising. She had to accept the fact that she now belonged to him, and whether she liked it or not, she was his to do with as he pleased; her actions so far would have been dealt with quite harshly by anyone else in his position.

Temari was actually quite confused by Shukaku's actions, or rather his lack of actions. She knew he wasn't one to force her to do anything, but he literally hadn't tried to give her a single order or even ask her to do something for him. As one of the Bijuu, and a self-proclaimed psychotic murderer, Temari had fully expected him to at least hold some form of authority over, but instead he had kept his distance and let her do as she pleased.

She smirked slightly as she saw him fidget uncomfortably from her glare that she just knew he could feel burning into the back of his head. Temari might have been grateful for him keeping his distance and trying to calm her down, but that didn't mean she wasn't still angry with him for accepting her from her mother. In reality, if it wasn't for his need to escape the seal that bound him to Gaara, then her mother wouldn't have needed to make the contract in the first place.

It had also come to the ex Suna shinobi's attention, that Shukaku's explanation of why she was given to him as a slave, directly interfered with his explanation of how he was freed from the seal in the first place. If he could keep all of this a secret then what was to say he wasn't lying about trying to keep Gaara's seal intact, or whether or not the seal was unstable in the first place.

"We are nearly at the gates of Konoha. We will be picking up the pace from here; hopefully we can get the formal stuff over and done with and still have some time before the sun sets" Gaara stated emotionlessly. Since this was technically a formal event, he had decided to keep a lid on his still slightly out of hand emotions.

With a loud yell of relief, Shukaku took off in an explosion of speed, shocking the four man ANBU team slightly. Temari suppressed a small giggle, as the masked shinobi stood stock still with what she guessed were gob smacked expressions; she had forgotten that Shukaku's speed and strength was far above what most any ninja would expect. Temari also had to remind herself constantly that with her chakra gates now opened, she too possessed a level of speed and strength that most could only wish for, but she had yet to actually utilise her new capabilities effectively.

As soon as the ANBU team was done grumbling about unfair demonic abilities, the small group, minus Shukaku, picked up their pace and headed straight for the Hokage tower. Hopefully Shukaku wouldn't do anything too stupid before they got there, lest he face the wrath of Tsunade Senju.

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><p>Tsunade gave a loud battle cry as she drove her chakra enhanced fist into the black haired young man. Her rage clouded her mind from noticing the odd features of boy as she tried with all her might to kill him, nothing else managing to register in her mind. She smirked victoriously as she felt her fist connect with him, a small but powerful shockwave exploding from the impact.<p>

"That hurt" the young man said with a childish pout.

Tsunade's eyes widened comically as she stared at the pouting boy. She had put more than enough chakra into that hit to kill almost anyone instantly, and yet there he was, just standing there with her fist held tightly in his hand. From her unrivalled skills as a medic ninja, she knew for a fact that with the amount of force she had hit him with, his entire arm should be completely reduced to mush, no matter how powerful he was.

Shukaku grunted in slight pain as he pushed her fist away from him. He had not been expecting her to hit like a fucking mountain of bricks, but then again, he hadn't really been expecting her to try and kill him either so he guessed he shouldn't be all that surprised. Still, he couldn't feel his arm anymore and he sure as hell wasn't going to catch another one of this woman's punches; he would much rather have her just put her arm through his chest than disintegrate his limbs.

"How the hell did you stop that?" Tsunade asked in shock. In all her long life, she had not once met someone who could stop her punches dead and shrug it off like nothing.

"Trade secret, sorry. Now can you please not do that again, I have a very important meeting with some very important people," Shukaku said casually.

"And who exactly are you supposed to be meeting?" Tsunade asked curiously.

"I'm not entirely sure, the Hokage or something, I wasn't paying very much attention" he answered with a shrug.

Tsunade gave the boy a disbelieving look. Surely, none of the major or minor villages would send someone this careless and dense to meet with her would they.

"I _am_ the Hokage of Konohagakure," Tsunade said in irritation. She could not believe that this boy hadn't recognised her for either of her titles.

Shukaku stopped and gave Tsunade a scrutinizing look. "Hah, nice try girl, but I am pretty damn sure that someone said the Hokage was some old lady" he said in amusement.

"Who the hell do you think you're calling girl?" Tsunade yelled. Normally she would have let such a comment go, especially since Naruto always call her granny; it was somewhat refreshing to have someone comment on how young she looked instead of how old she actually was.

"I was calling _you_ a girl, girl!" Shukaku yelled back. "Seriously, what is with you youngsters these days; I mean yes you're beautiful, but no respect for your elders whatsoever," he muttered.

Tsunade actually blushed at that, despite her better judgment. She still wanted to cave the boy's skull in, but since he was such a flatterer, she probably wouldn't do it so violently.

"Lady Tsunade" Gaara said calmly as he landed next to the older woman.

"Oh, hello lord Kazekage" she replied politely, bowing slightly to the young red head.

"I was curious as to why you were not in your office; your secretary mentioned something about an intruder, Saké, and murder," the young Kazekage said with amusement.

Tsunade chuckled in embarrassment. "I can assure you that Shizune is over exaggerating things," she said with a laugh.

"Over exaggerating? Please, you _were_ trying to kill me, and don't you dare deny it!" Shukaku exclaimed.

"Yes, and I'm still curious as to how you managed to stop my punch, but that can wait till later. ANBU, capture him and lock him up, securely," Tsunade ordered.

On cue, a small group of masked shinobi dropped down from the rooftops and surrounded Shukaku with blades drawn.

"Wait!" Gaara ordered loudly. "Shukaku, stand down, now"

Tsunade's eyes widened and the Konoha ANBU all took a step away from the black and grey haired teen. Shukaku grinned viciously and allowed a small amount of his suppressed chakra to leak out; unfortunately, what he perceived as a small amount was in fact quite a massive amount. The explosion of chakra that followed created a shockwave that knocked everyone back by two or three feet.

"Ah, that felt amazing. I really should find time to stop suppressing my chakra like this," Shukaku said with a deep sigh.

"You…you're Shukaku? As in the Ichibi no Tanuki Shukaku?" Tsunade asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, why?" he asked, giving her a light glare.

"You mean to say that I was just trying to kill the Ichibi in a one on one fight?" she asked in shock.

"Yes, and I will give you credit for that punch, it really fucking hurt, for a moment anyway" Shukaku replied casually.

"Might I ask why you were trying to kill him?" Gaara asked calmly.

"He drank my Saké!" the Hokage yelled angrily.

"Oh calm down, no need to get your panties in a twist over some cheap Saké" Shukaku said. "Who knows, if you're nice, I might even give you one of the high quality bottles I have in storage," he added with a shrug. "That, or I could just pay for an entire night drinking, your choice"

"Ha, you really think you can afford me, better yet, do you honestly think that I'll just let you off that easily?" Tsunade asked smugly.

"Indeed, and how were you planning on paying for that anyway; as I recall, you do not possess any money" Gaara stated calmly.

"What the hell do you mean I don't have money, I'm filthy fucking rich in case you didn't know!" Shukaku exclaimed.

Gaara rose a non-existent eyebrow at that. "Then why have you not made use of this fortune, and where does it reside?" he questioned.

"Well I haven't used it for two reasons; firstly, I'm a stingy bastard, and secondly, I was never asked to pay for anything," the demon answered with a smirk. "As for where it is, well it's sealed away inside of me"

The Kazekage glared at his former tenant. "I expect full compensation for the expenses you cost me, both from destruction, and from your own personal purchases" he said sternly.

"Oh whatever, go and ruin all of the fun why don't you" Shukaku muttered.

Tsunade watched the exchange in amusement, a small smile tugging at her lips. She had heard that the Ichibi had been freed from the Kazekage, along with the redhead's miraculous survival, but she had also heard about the demons odd behaviour. She could honestly say that this was not in any way shape or form what she had been expecting.

Being Hokage gave Tsunade the 'privilege' of knowing several people in positions of power, and almost every single one of them had the same attitude. They all had the same arrogance, that ever present cocky aura that practically begged for a punch in the face. Luckily, despite being one of the nine most powerful beings alive, it appeared as though Shukaku was not one to let his power go to his head.

"Lord Kazekage!" Baki exclaimed as he landed next to said Kage, being quickly joined by Kankuro, four Suna ANBU, and a particularly conflicted looking Temari.

"You should not run off like that Gaara," the older Suna shinobi said with a light glare.

"Yeah bro, what use is there in having us as your guards if you're just gunna run away from us; what if you got hurt or something?" Kankuro asked irritably.

Gaara gave his older brother an amused look. "Are you trying to say that I am not capable of looking after myself?" the young Kage asked with a smirk.

"Of course not!" Kankuro replied quickly.

"Excuse me, not to ruin the moment or anything, but I think it might be best if we continue any further discussions in my office" Tsunade suggested calmly.

"Hmm, I suppose that would be best. Our presence is starting to draw attention, especially after your scuffle with Shukaku" Gaara replied.

"Very well, let's go" the Hokage said quickly before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Everyone else quickly followed after her, all of them missing the concerned look that Shukaku sent towards the still unnervingly silent Temari.

* * *

><p>Once everyone arrived at the Hokage's office, they noticed some out of place things. One of these things just so happened to be the desk that had been thrown across the room and was now being put back into place by a not so happy Tsunade. It was safe to assume that there had been a slightly destructive interaction between the Hokage and the Ichibi, more than likely over the mere contents of a bottle.<p>

"Sorry about the mess, but someone decided to be an asshole" Tsunade said with a glare directed at Shukaku.

"I said I would pay for it, jeez; what more do you want woman?" Shukaku asked.

"Were you serious about paying for a whole night of drinking?" she asked hopefully.

"I suppose, why?" he asked worriedly.

Tsunade giggled in a somehow evil way, making Shukaku quickly regret what he had said. Gaara and Kankuro watched on with matching smirks, both counting this as some form of karma for the demon; Baki had the decency to feel some sympathy for Shukaku, he had heard about how much Tsunade could drink and needless to say, Shukaku would definitely be feeling the loss of weight in his wallet after this.

Temari, unlike everyone else, had not even taken notice of what was going on within the office. Instead, she was having an internal battle with herself over whether or not she should actually apologise to Shukaku. The kunoichi side of her wanted to maintain her pride as a well-respected, strong, and independent young woman, while the more civil side of her wanted to apologise for her overly harsh response to everything.

As it currently stood, Temari was leaning towards apologising. It wasn't so much that she had lost any of her pride or self-worth, it was just that she knew that she was being a complete bitch for no real reason; sure, she was now a slave for a psychopath, but that psychopath just so happened to have done nothing wrong to her directly. The entire situation was starting to give her a headache, and despite everything, she desperately wanted one of Shukaku's chakra massages.

"So, now that everyone is here, I think it's safe to finally explain why exactly you are here," Tsunade said.

Everyone except Gaara and Baki gave her a questioning look, which they quickly turned to Gaara, and then straight back to Tsunade.

"Wait a second. I thought we were here for you to sign some trading agreements and stuff," Shukaku said in confusion.

"No, we are not; trading agreements can easily be sent to me for signing without any requirements for either Kage to over dramatize such simple matters. We are here for something far more personal" Gaara replied calmly.

"And what exactly might that be?" Kankuro asked with narrowed eyes. He wasn't too sure why, but something in his gut was telling him to run, run fast and run far.

"To further solidify the treaty agreement between our villages, our respective councils have agreed on a political marriage," Tsunade said with a scowl on her face.

"Huh?" was Kankuro's incredibly intelligent response.

Gaara sighed at his brother's denseness. "It means that someone from our village will be marrying someone from Konoha," he explained in the simplest way he could think of.

"Oh, ok, but who's the unlucky bastard?" the older brother asked casually.

"Well, due to guidelines that were set by the original Kage's in regards to political marriages, the Kage of a village can't be one of the two selected for the marriage; this was decided because no one wanted to risk the councils using their combined power to make the Kage marry someone of their choice. It was also made so that each Kage must approve of both parties of the marriage, only the Kage's of the villages have the power to make such an agreement legal, although that rule is rather recent," Tsunade explained.

"By that logic, Gaara is automatically off the menu, in a manner of speaking. Other rules on such an agreement are quite simple; a slave or person in servitude to another cannot be offered for the marriage, taking Temari off the list as well. Whoever is chosen must have some form of wealth, political power, or other form of standing within their village so as to show trust and respect between the villages; also, the marriage can be cancelled should both parties refuse after a three month trial period, with permission from their Kage's" she continued.

"Ok, but that still doesn't answer my question," Kankuro said.

Everyone in the room felt the need to punch him at that moment. Gaara and Temari were feeling it the worst due their close relation to the make up wearing boy, but Baki came in at a very close second due to being his sensei.

"Think about it man, it isn't Gaara, it ain't Temari, it sure as hell ain't gunna be the ANBU chick or any of her pals, Baki, well I'm not too sure about Baki, but I think it's safe to say it isn't gunna be him" Shukaku explained casually.

"Wait!" Kankuro exclaimed as he turned to look at Gaara in shock. "You're marrying Shukaku off?" he asked in disbelief.

Everyone stared at Kankuro as if he was an idiot, which at this point in time was actually not too difficult to believe. Temari and Gaara were already planning on removing all traces of Kankuro being related to them, while Baki was considering removing himself from all records so as to not be traced back as the boy's sensei. The ANBU wanted to kill themselves in shame, and Shukaku, well he was the one who actually did something that everyone had been wanting to do for a while and punched the boy in the face.

"Ow, what was that for?" the make up wearing boy yelled.

"Are you seriously that dense you idiot. They can't marry me to anyone, I'm not human and I'm not under the rule of the Kazekage; not to mention there are specific requirements for a Bijuu to marry a mortal, and I'm telling you now there are very few people in the world who would happily agree to them" Shukaku said harshly.

"But if you're not the one getting married, then who the hell is?" Kankuro shouted back.

"You are you idiot!" Shukaku yelled angrily.

And just like that, Kankuro fainted.


	18. Chapter 18

Authors Notes:

Hello all, here's the new chapter. I'm sorry that this chapter isn't as comedic as the others usually are but it is slightly longer; i intend to make up for this in the next chapter. Either way, i hope you enjoy my rather mediocre attempt at building an actual plot for this story.

I am not entirely sure how my already erratic schedule for updating will continue from here on out, but i doubt that it will change too much. At most it will take a little longer for new chapters since i'm writing several other things with the same touch and go method.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

><p>Kankuro took a hesitant sip from the glass of Sake he held shakily in his hand. After he had woken up, he immediately had a slight panic attack which earned him a punch from Tsunade and Temari. The Hokage had been kind enough to heal the damage and give him one of her own bottles of Sake, but that did very little to calm him down after learning he was being used in a political marriage.<p>

Gaara and Baki had yet again returned to calm silence, both content to let Kankuro calm down in his own time. The ANBU team had decided to play a card game, one which Tsunade had quickly made herself a part of before losing miserably. Temari was standing in the corner of the office looking like she was waging a mental war against herself, something that almost cheered up her somewhat depressed brother.

Shukaku was the only person who was actively trying to help him, in his own odd way anyway. The demon had created a genjutsu that only effected Kankuro, the results of this genjutsu were that said victim was chased by scantily clad women; since Kankuro hadn't moved since it was cast the women had caught him. So now here he was, a shocked and slightly depressed boy, who was trying with all his might to ignore the scantily clad women that were all hanging off him; if Temari knew what was happening she would kill him, and probably Shukaku too.

"You feeling any better yet brat?" Tsunade asked.

"I guess so," Kankuro answered weakly.

"Calm down already, it's not like you don't have a chance of getting out of the deal. All we are asking you to do is spend the next three months with this girl, and if you both agree, you get married; not a big deal when you think about it. Of course you are basically expected to go through with it despite your own opinion," the Hokage explained casually.

"What the hell do you know about this kinda crap?" Shukaku asked bluntly. Somehow, he had been supplying himself with bottle after bottle of Sake from multiple storage seals engraved into his skin; he wasn't drunk yet but the alcohol was slowly having an effect.

"I once had the misfortune of being placed into a political marriage, not that it lasted very long," Tsunade answered with a scowl.

"What happened, did he call it off?" Shukaku asked with a stupid grin on his face.

"Actually yes, yes he did. Then again, the fact that I punched him in the balls after he tried to grope me probably helped in that regard" she muttered.

"Yeah, I'd say that would destroy any potential marriage" the Ichibi said grimly.

"Don't tell me that. What if whoever I have to marry decides to punch me in the balls?" Kankuro asked in a panic.

"Then don't try to grab her boobs, seriously boy, think before you do something you might really regret" Shukaku said before downing yet another bottle of Sake.

"Who is he marrying anyway?" Gaara asked, finally deciding to join in.

"That is a brilliant question, but I think the only one in here that could best answer that question is Temari," Tsunade said with an evil grin.

Everyone turned to look at the aforementioned girl only to see her sitting in the corner muttering to herself in some form of internal battle. This got several different reactions from everyone else ranging from shocked, curious, worried, and even amused. It did become blatantly obvious that Temari hadn't been listening to a thing anyone else had been saying, meaning she wasn't going to tell them who Kankuro was being married to anytime soon.

"Ok, should I give her a medical check?" the Hokage asked Shukaku.

"Why the hell are you asking me?" said demon asked in confusion.

"You're the girl's master, by law I can't do anything to her without your permission," Tsunade explained.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold the fuck up for a moment; will I be required to give permission for _everything_ involving her?" Shukaku asked.

"Not everything, but you are required to give permission for anything to do with medical treatment for her" she answered. "I kind of expected one of the Bijuu to be quite knowledgeable in regards to the subject of slavery," she added.

"Everyone keeps on assuming that, why?" he asked curiously.

"The legends have a lot of stories about the Bijuu destroying towns and taking people as slaves. You know, general over exaggerated demon stories," the blonde answered.

"Oh come on. The only one of my siblings who I know took any slaves was Matatabi, and I can assure you that not a single one of them had any complaints," Shukaku said in frustration.

"Anyway, back to who I'm supposed to marry?" Kankuro asked.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Well brat, consider yourself one lucky guy cause your potential wife to be is none other than Tenten, the weapon mistress of Konoha!" Tsunade exclaimed happily.

"Hmm, is that not the girl that Temari defeated in the preliminary round of our first chunin exams here?" Gaara asked calmly.

"The one and only" she replied.

"Wait a second. I though each village had to give someone of importance for the marriage, and if I'm not mistaken, the brother of the Kazekage is a bit more deserving of more than a simple weapons mistress" Shukaku said with narrowed eyes. "Are you trying to play us for fools?"

"No, Tenten is the highest value kunoichi we could offer, unless you wanted a civilian girl" Tsunade said shamefully. "The clans all but refused to go along with the marriage and the civilian council threw a fit at the thought of giving away one of their children for less than the Kazekage himself"

"Are you not the Hokage?" Shukaku asked innocently.

"Yes, I am, but…"

"No buts about it!" the sand demon yelled, getting everyone but Temari to look at him with wide eyes. "You are the Hokage of Konohagakure, meaning your word is the fucking law. If those pansy ass civilian bastards go against your law, you break a chair over their heads and assert your authority; I caught one of your punches so I know you have the strength to back up your words. The real question is are you going to let them walk all over you like dirt?" he asked angrily.

"Shukaku, I think perhaps you have had a bit too much to drink" Baki said even though he couldn't deny what the demon had said.

"Shut up Baki, I'm giving a speech here," Shukaku said while waving off the Suna ninja dismissingly. "Now Tsunade or whatever your name is, are you going to let those politician morons boss you around, or are you going to help me get blind drunk and tell them all to go fuck themselves?" he asked with a slight slur to his words.

Tsunade grinned wickedly and greedily accepted the bottle of Sake that the demon was holding out to her. "I think you and me will get along perfectly. I might even steal you," she said with a laugh.

Everyone was quickly distracted as the office door opened. They all watched as a girl with brown hair tied up in two buns walked in with a smile on her face, her dark brown eyes almost shining with mischief.

"Hello lady Tsunade" she said cheerfully as she walked in and sat down next to Kankuro.

"Hello Tenten. Might I ask why you're here?" Tsunade questioned, her own eyes glimmering mischievously.

"I heard Temari and her brothers were here so I thought I'd come say hi" she answered innocently before a wicked grin formed on her face and she leant over to Kankuro, bringing her face awkwardly close to his own. "Hi" she said quietly.

"You know don't you?" Kankuro asked.

"Of course I know; how could I not know that I'm being married off to the Kazekage's brother. On the bright side though, at least you're kinda cute, when you aren't wearing the cat suit and make of course," Tenten said happily.

"It's war paint," he muttered.

Tenten smiled and patted him on the head. "Of course it is, you just keep on telling yourself that," she said cutely. "Now where is Temari?" she asked excitedly.

"She's over in the corner," Shukaku said, pointing at the girl who still appeared to be in conflict with herself.

"Oh, and who might you be?" the bun haired girl asked while giving him an approving up and down glance.

"Oh where are my manners. I am Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki, and now the official protector and owner of wind country. It is a pleasure to meet you my dear," Shukaku said in a dramatic fashion, bowing slightly and kissing her hand.

Tenten, for her part, kept on giggling at his introduction until his words actually sunk in. Once she realised exactly what he had said, she couldn't help but stare at him with wide eyes.

"The Ichibi no Tanuki. As in the sand demon?" she choked out.

Shukaku nodded his head with a grin on his face. He did so love watching people freak out after realising what he was, but it did get somewhat old rather quickly. His eyes widened when a kunai suddenly found itself imbedded between them, which he knew had been thrown rather accurately by Tenten. This reaction was new to him; he had never met someone who could go from freaking out to attempted murder so quickly.

"Huh, you didn't die. That is so cool!" Tenten squealed excitedly.

_'Ok this is just wrong now' _he thought to himself.

"Tenten, did you just attack a Bijuu?" Tsunade asked in shock.

"Maaaaybe" Tenten replied cutely while twiddling her thumbs innocently.

Shukaku reached up and pulled out the offending bladed weapon, the wound quickly filling with sand and healing instantly.

"That was odd," he said simply. "Anyway, now that you got that out of your system I'm gunna have to ask you to talk to Temari; I'd do it myself but she doesn't really want to talk to me right now"

Tenten gave a slight nod before walking over to the eldest sand sibling, leaving a shocked Tsunade, a confused Kankuro, and a grinning Shukaku.

"Kankuro my man, you have got yourself a keeper there!" he exclaimed quietly.

"Hey Temari, helloooo" Tenten said cheerfully, waving her hand in front of the girls face.

"Huh, oh hi Tenten, how are you?" Temari asked quietly.

"I'm fine, you know, getting married and all. What about you? You don't seem to be going too great," the weapon mistress said with a small frown.

"I'm fine, just a little stressed" the sandy blonde said tiredly.

"In that case, why don't we go to the hot springs and spend the rest of the day relaxing. I'm sure that the other girls would love to catch up as well!" Tenten exclaimed.

"Actually, that sounds like a great idea" Temari replied with a bit more enthusiasm.

Temari could feel the pointed stare her little brother was giving her even before she took a single step. She knew exactly what he was expecting her to do and truth be told she couldn't really blame him; being the sister of the Kazekage meant that her behaviour had an impact on Suna's reputation, even as a slave. If she gave a bad impression in front of anyone important, such as the Hokage, then it could reflect badly on Suna and Gaara.

With a mental sigh she realised that the decision had already been made for her, she just had to go along with it like she was supposed to. She calmly walked over to where Shukaku was giving Kankuro a thumbs up while gulping down the contents of another bottle of Sake; Temari bowed to him respectfully, which got her some odd looks from Kankuro and Tenten, who had no idea of what was going on.

"May I please have your permission to go with her…master?" she asked politely, shocking Tenten and making Kankuro start gulping down his own bottle of Sake.

Shukaku instantly began to choke on his drink, breaking out into a coughing fit as he stared wide eyed at the girl who was still bowing to him.

"Um, yeah, that's fine. Go have a nice afternoon; just be at the hotel before dark" Shukaku said apprehensively.

"Thank you, master" Temari said quietly before walking out of the office with a royally shocked Tenten.

"What's with the awkwardness?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Temari hasn't talked to me in a week, and now she suddenly starts calling me master and asks my permission to leave" Shukaku muttered quietly before turning to glare at Gaara. "What the hell man, why did you make her do that?" he asked angrily.

"Don't worry, it makes sense now. Temari can't afford to be disobedient while in another village, it would reflect badly on Suna and Gaara should she not act like a proper slave; she is simply doing what is best for her village and family" Tsunade said. "Although I have to give her credit, very few women can push their pride to the side like that. The girls got guts"

"I don't give a shit about village reputation!" Shukaku yelled. "I don't want a slave, I never did. I would sooner kill that girl than have her feel obligated to bow to my every whim, which means that this shit stops right now. Do you understand me, Gaara?" he asked dangerously.

"It isn't me you should be talking to, Temari is the one who realised this and it is she who is choosing to be obedient. If you have problems with it, take it up with her" Gaara replied calmly.

"You know what, fuck everything," Shukaku shouted before stumbling towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm gunna go and drink myself into a coma, hopefully I will forget about what I just had to live through. Do you wanna join me?" he asked curiously.

Tsunade sighed. "Fine. Gaara, I want you to come back here tomorrow so we can discuss the finer details of things, everyone else is free to do as they please so long as it isn't destructive" she said exhaustedly, receiving a depressed groan from Shukaku after her forbidding of destruction. "For now though, let's go have fun!"

* * *

><p>Tenten sighed in relief as she lowered herself into the hot springs, the hot water quickly soothing her tense muscles. She casually glanced over as Temari walked to the water's edge still covered in a white towel; she could see that the older girl was still in a somewhat down mood, even if she was forcing herself to not show it outwardly.<p>

The bun haired girl, whose hair was currently let down freely, watched carelessly as the ex-Suna kunoichi let the towel drop from her form. Tenten's eyes widened in curiosity and concern as she stared questioningly at the rather sizable seal above the girl's navel. Since most seals were designed to be small, easily able to fit on ones palm, this one, covering a good portion of skin on her midsection, was odd and clearly unique.

"What's that?" the weapon mistress blurted out.

Temari quirked an eyebrow at the younger girl. "What's what?" she asked back.

"That seal, what is it?" Tenten elaborated.

"Oh, that" Temari muttered as she glanced down at the eight spiralling magatama on her stomach. "It's just a seal that Shukaku put on me," she explained casually.

"So…you really are a slave then, huh?" Tenten asked hesitantly.

"It's not that kind of seal, Tenten," the sandy blonde answered as she lowered herself into the hot springs as well. "It just keeps my celestial gates open permanently; Shukaku put it on me when he was helping me get stronger. You would not believe how much it hurt"

"What? How the hell are you still alive, the eighth gate is supposed to kill you!" the brunette exclaimed.

"To be completely honest, I'm not delusional enough to even lie about knowing what he did. I'm content to just go on without knowing what the technical details are" Temari said nonchalantly.

"Ok, but what's the deal with you being a slave?" Tenten asked. "Like, is it actually true, or are people just saying that?"

"It's true" Temari answered simply.

Tenten remained silent for a few seconds, allowing the information to completely process through her mind. "Sooo…what's it like, you know, being a slave?" she asked quietly, a light blush adorning her face.

Temari stared at the girl emotionlessly. "What kind of assumptions are you making?" she asked dangerously.

Tenten's eyes widened. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that…well…most slaves are used for…you know. I was just wondering how you're coping with it" she said shyly.

The older girl's blank stare softened slightly and she slunk a little further into the hot water. "I haven't had to do anything" she replied quietly.

"Eh? Seriously, he hasn't made you do anything…you know…personal?" the blushing brunette asked, whispering the last past in embarrassment.

"Why are you being so shy and embarrassed, it's not really that big of a deal. And for the record, Shukaku hasn't made do anything…at all…not a single solitary thing" Temari said.

"How interesting. A man who doesn't treat his slave like a slave; I wonder how such a thing exists" a new voice said curiously.

Tenten squeaked as she quickly jumped away from the person who had decided to position herself uncomfortably close to the brown eyed girl. Temari merely sighed as the newest member to the conversation cackled madly and tried to chase the embarrassed brunette.

"Hello Anko" the blonde greeted lazily.

"Hello to you too sand girl, or should I call you slave girl?" Anko asked jokingly.

"Call me whatever you want, you're just gunna do it anyway" Temari muttered.

"Damn right I am. I am Anko Mitarashi and no one tells me what to do; unfortunately for you, someone can actually tell you what to do" she said with a toothy grin.

"You're just gunna keep making fun of the fact that I'm a slave now, aren't you?" the blonde asked.

"Aww, it's no fun when you know me so well" the purple haired woman whined childishly.

"Um, excuse me, can you please let go of me?" Tenten asked quietly, her face glowing red in embarrassment.

Anko looked down at the girl she had pressed up against her rather impressive bust. She grinned as Tenten tried to squirm her way to freedom and tightened her hold around the blushing girl.

"Sorry brat no can do. If you want me to let you go, you are just gunna have to hug me back" Anko replied, another mad cackle escaping the snake summoner.

"Let her go Anko" Temari ordered lazily.

"Heh, what's this, little slave thinks she can give orders now. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but you no longer hold any authority whatsoever," Anko said with a disturbingly kind smile. "But don't worry, so long as your master is as kind as you're making him out to be then you'll be fine. Who do you belong to by the way, if you don't mind me asking?"

"My master is Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki" the blonde answered emotionlessly.

"Oh…well that's…kinda cool…I guess" Anko choked out nervously.

Temari raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong Anko, you aren't afraid of my master are you?" she asked with a smirk.

"What…no…of course not…as if some little sand demon could scare me," the woman said between nervous chuckles.

"Oh really. So I guess you wouldn't mind explaining to him why you called me slave girl, because as I understand it, he doesn't take that kind of thing very well," Temari said, an evil grin tugging at her lips. "And by the way, he isn't all that little either"

"No, no, no, it's cool. You don't need to tell him anything!" Anko exclaimed, waving her hands around in front of her and releasing Tenten from her embrace. She paused suddenly and narrowed her eyes at the blonde kunoichi. "How big?" she asked curiously.

Temari smirked as she leant back against the wall of the hot springs, Tenten quickly moving next to her while whispering a thankyou. Anko grumbled and crossed her arms under her chest, turning her head away with a huff.

"Hey Temari, are you ok? We've been here for a little while now and you still seem real tense," Tenten said in concern.

"I'm fine, it's just that the hot springs don't quite feel as relaxing like they used to" Temari replied tiredly.

Anko grinned perversely as her dark brown eyes shined with mischief. "Has our little desert flower finally shared a bed?" she questioned assumingly.

Said 'desert flower' blushed lightly and glared at the purple haired woman. "Just because we slept in the same bed, does not mean that we did_ that_, despite the make out contest," she said through gritted teeth.

"Oooh, so you did share a bed and you even had a make out contest too," Anko said, wiping away a non-existent tear and sniffling slightly. "They grow up so fast," she said quietly to herself.

"Wait a minute. When did this happen, who, more importantly, how did you get Shukaku to allow it?" Tenten asked.

"It was _with _Shukaku, and neither of us remember it very well. All I remember was drinking with everyone else, and then I woke up with him in my bed, both of us with a few hickeys and bite marks; it really wasn't a big deal" the teal eyed kunoichi replied.

"You made out with a Bijuu in human form?" Anko asked wide eyed. "That. Is. So. Cool!" she squealed gleefully.

"You have a very warped perception of what's cool," Temari stated bluntly.

"Oh please, as if you didn't enjoy it" the snake summoner countered casually.

"I'd rather not think about Shukaku at the moment. I'm still finding it hard to cope with becoming a slave," the blonde said mopingly.

"I don't see what your problem is kid," Anko said with a slightly serious tone.

"Of course you don't, you aren't the one who's been made a slave, and you aren't the one who was sold off by someone long since dead," Temari snapped back harshly.

"You keep pointing out the negatives, how about you try focusing on the positives. For one, you should consider yourself lucky, Temari; there are many in the world who are slaves to some truly terrible people, and they would all trade places with you in a heartbeat. Not everyone gets the privilege of a kind master, and that's something you should take into consideration the next time you plan on complaining about your own" Anko said calmly before moving over to the far side of the hot springs, leaving Temari and Tenten alone in silence.

"Who knew she had a serious side" Temari muttered.

"She does have a point Temari. Perhaps you should try looking at the good things that can come from your…um…predicament" Tenten said casually.

Temari sighed lightly. "I guess I can try. But first I think I need to apologise for ignoring him, and also cutting his arm off that one time" she said with a small smile.

"You cut his arm off?" Tenten asked in disbelief.

"Um, yes?" Temari answered unsurely.

"And it just grew back?"

"I guess so; he _can_ turn himself into sand after all"

Tenten's eyes lit up mischievously as she rubbed her hands together in an evil mastermind sort of way, a truly wicked grin forming on her features. "Temari, would you mind if I borrowed Shukaku for a training session?" she asked in the most sickeningly sweet tone Temari had ever heard.

A Cheshire cat grin nearly split Temari's face in two and somewhere else in Konoha a certain sand demon felt an unnaturally cold chill go up his spine. _'Shukaku is so going to kill me for this, but oh Kami will it be worth it' _she thought with a mental giggle.

"Sure thing Tenten, just tell me where and I'll have him there tomorrow" Temari answered with a smile.

Anko watched on from the other side of the hot springs as both girls started to giggle uncontrollably. The purple haired woman frowned slightly; she was being left out of what she could easily assume was a truly diabolical plan to prank some poor bastard. She would have forcefully made herself a part of such a thing, but she had reason to believe that the girls were targeting the Ichibi and that was one shit storm she did not need to be a part of.

She may have been crazy, but she sure as hell wasn't suicidal.

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><p><strong>Please leave a review. Any thoughts, suggestions, or complaints are much appreciated.<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

Authors Notes:

Ok people, here's the next chapter, in record time might i add. I found myself several energy drinks recently and this is the end result of that terrible decision. I'm sorry to say that i was not able to completely make up for the previous chapters lack in humor, it was just that i had to fit quite a lot of explaining into this chapter. I can definitely say that the next chapter will contain more humor, including the debut of some of the Konoha shinobi that we all know and love. Your hint is caterpillar.

Side Note: I recently received my first ever negative review on one of my stories, and i couldn't be happier. Even though its good to know that people enjoy my writing, its just as enjoyable to know that i have managed to piss off someone in the world. Unfortunately, the anonymous reviewer simply stated that my stories suck, leaving no explanation as for why they did. I don't mind if you guys don't like my stories and feel the need to tell me so, but please just explain what it is about them that you dislike, constructive criticism never hurt anyone.

Anyway, i hope you a enjoy this chapter and i will try to update as soon as possible.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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><p>Temari stared emotionlessly at Gaara, Gaara stared back; Temari continued to stare, and Gaara also continued to stare. It took several minutes for anything to actually happen, which turned out to be Gaara slurping up a mouthful of ramen that he had gotten from Ichiraku ramen. He really had to give Naruto credit; this truly was the food of the gods.<p>

"What do you want Gaara?" Temari asked impatiently.

She had just gotten back from the hot springs only to find her little brother waiting patiently for her in _her _hotel room. Well, technically it was Shukaku's hotel room that she was also staying in, but she kind of doubted that he would be able to find his way back tonight; that meant that the room was all hers.

"I just wanted to talk to you," Gaara answered innocently.

"This wouldn't happen to be about Shukaku would it?" she asked irritably.

"And what if it is?" the redhead asked curiously.

"Look Gaara, I know you probably mean well, but I really don't want to talk about Shukaku right now alright. Don't worry, I plan to apologise for my recent behaviour soon, but I at least want tonight to myself" the sandy blonde said.

"Temari, you really need to talk to him," Gaara said calmly. "There is more to the story of how you became his slave, and unless you ask him directly, I don't know if he will tell you"

"Wait, so I wasn't just sold to him by our mother to keep him from tearing his way out of the seal?"

"Well technically yes, you were. But there were some other important things that were left out"

"Why would you guys leave things out?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm…not entirely sure. Shukaku said something about the bad news before the good and made me swear not to tell you anything we hadn't agreed on" Gaara explained.

"And I assume that despite you telling me that, you still won't tell me what else there was to the deal that Shukaku made with our mother" Temari summarised lazily.

"Oh Kami no!" the young Kazekage exclaimed quickly. "I am taking a risk just saying this much to you as it is, I refuse to incur the wrath of a Bijuu over something as little as answers that you can easily get just by asking him yourself"

Temari groaned as she walked over and sat down on the small lounge across from her brother. It was quickly getting dark outside and the distant sounds of partying were slowly dying down as well; she guessed that Shukaku had been drinking non-stop ever since she left the Hokage's office. Gaara was more than likely going to throw a temper tantrum once he got charged for damages.

"Oh, and I highly suggest you never call him master again" Gaara added thoughtfully.

"What, why?" Temari asked quickly. "And weren't you the one who stared at me in a way that practically demanded that I respect him as my master?" she added with a light glare.

"Yes, I did expect you to act accordingly while within this village, for your sake as much as my own, and I admire your ability to do so despite your pride. But Shukaku almost threw a fit as soon as you left, and if such a thing can be avoided by you simply not calling him master, well then I insist that you never refer to him as such" Gaara explained.

That actually managed to leave Temari speechless, more from surprise than anything else. She knew Shukaku was kind and incredibly patient when it came to her, but to get angry over such a thing was…surprising. It wasn't like the Bijuu had ever acted like a typical slave owner, but it was quickly starting to get ridiculous, even to the point where Temari didn't think he wanted her as his slave.

"It's almost like he doesn't even want me as a slave," she said jokingly, voicing her thoughts openly.

"He doesn't" her brother replied simply.

Temari's teal eyes narrowed dangerously. "And why not? Am I not good enough for him or something?" she asked harshly.

"I believe his exacts words were 'I would sooner kill that girl than have her feel obligated to bow to my every whim'" the Kazekage recounted emotionlessly. "Personally, I think that Shukaku has a serious problem with the concept of slavery, more than likely caused by him being sealed multiple times and being used much like a slave. But that's just my speculation"

"If he didn't want me to treat him as my master then why the hell did he accept me as a slave!" Temari yelled. She was quickly becoming a combination of angry and confused, which had the potential to lead to disaster very quickly.

"He didn't have a choice!" Gaara yelled back sternly, instantly stopping Temari from continuing. He sighed deeply and dragged his one still flesh and blood hand through his messy auburn hair. "Look, I've already said enough to get my ass kicked for the next few weeks. If you want to know any more I suggest you ask Shukaku. You didn't hear this from me, but I think you'd have more luck while he's drunk," he said quietly before vanishing in a swirl of sand.

Temari remained silent for several minutes as she sat alone in the lounge room. She thought about everything that Gaara had said, over and over in her mind, until all she could think about was what Gaara had yelled at her. "He didn't have a choice?" she whispered to herself in confusion. That one statement was quickly creating so many questions that it was beginning to hurt her head.

She now had a new feeling of curiosity growing within her at a rapid rate, and she knew that if she didn't find out the entire truth about the deal Shukaku made, it would eventually send her mad. That being said, Temari also didn't want to actually ask Shukaku directly; she wanted him to tell her of his own free will, without the assistance of alcohol. Unfortunately, the blonde kunoichi also knew that the Ichibi was easily as stubborn as she was, meaning that at this rate neither of them would come out of this situation happy.

"Fuck it!" she exclaimed irritably before quickly exiting the hotel room.

It was rather pleasant to walk through the streets of Konoha, especially as it started getting dark. With barely anyone else out, it left a calm and relaxing silence that Temari usually associated with a cold desert night. This however, could not be said for her destination. The bar, in which she eventually found herself standing in front of, was not by any definition of the word, silent. So it was with great hesitance that Temari entered the building.

She noted that the majority of the people within the bar were actually unconscious, probably from drinking too much, and that most of the noise was coming from one of the far corners of the large open room. Temari quietly manoeuvred her way around the multiple bodies lying on the floor, making her way towards where she assumed Shukaku would no doubt be.

Just as expected, Shukaku was in fact exactly where Temari assumed he would be…for the most part anyway. She hadn't really expected him to be sitting on a throne made from Sake bottles and shot glasses, but he was in the location she had guessed so that counted for something. Any further evaluation on the scene that she had walked in on was cut off by a slurred war cry of sorts, courtesy of an incredibly drunk Tsunade, who proceeded to deliver a chakra enhanced punch to a very unfortunate man.

A quick double check on the unconscious people that she had walked past made Temari realise that several of them had suffered the same fate, although she wasn't completely sure why. She turned her eyes back to Shukaku, who was sitting on his throne perfectly still, glaring at those around him as if they were inferior.

"Oh, Temari, how good of you to join us. Come over here and have a drink!" Tsunade exclaimed happily, offering out an unopened bottle of Sake.

"No thanks, I'm fine. I just came to see Shukaku" Temari replied casually.

"Well I'm sorry to inform you of this, but your boyfriend won't be moving for a while yet" Tsunade stated.

Temari began to wonder how exactly the Hokage was able to speak coherently despite being so drunk, but quickly labelled it as her having _a lot _of practice. After that was out of the way it only took her a few seconds to completely register what Tsunade had said, which caused her to blush slightly and glare at the old woman.

"He is not my boyfriend! And what do you mean he won't be moving for a while?" Temari asked harshly, trying to force back the light tinge of red on her cheeks.

"Aww, you're blushing. That's adorable!" Tsunade squealed in a very un-Tsunade like way. "I can only imagine how you would have reacted if you saw his little temper tantrum over you; it was kinda sweet to see him so against you being his slave" she said casually, not noticing the glare that Shukaku was sending her or the small smirk forming at Temari's lips.

"Is that so?" Temari asked sweetly, turning to look curiously at Shukaku. "Perhaps he would be kind enough to come back to the hotel to talk about it," she suggested.

"That might take a while; as I said before, he won't be moving," the Hokage said with a smirk.

"Why not?" Temari asked calmly.

"Because if he moves so much as a muscle, that throne he's sitting on there will collapse under him, becoming a painful bed of broken glass," the older blonde said evilly.

"How the hell did he end up in this situation?" the younger blonde asked in slight shock. She knew bar games could get violent, but this was pushing it to the extreme.

"I put him there," Tsunade proclaimed proudly. "Little bastard beat me in four drinking competitions, this is his punishment" she muttered irritably.

"Isn't that a little…extreme?" Temari asked hesitantly.

"Pfft, he'll be fine. It's not like that can really hurt him, he is made of sand after all," the intoxicated woman said dismissively.

"That seems to be a common excuse people use when it comes to him," the ex-Suna kunoichi said quietly. "Anyway, I need to talk to him, so do you think you can get him off of that thing without hurting him?" she asked.

"Hell no. I wanna see him squirm in agony," Tsunade said with a disturbing grin.

Temari groaned impatiently. She came here expecting to finally talk to Shukaku, despite her initial hesitation; she did not come here to wait around for him to hurt himself like an idiot.

"Shukaku, just fall already, I need to talk to you privately," she said tiredly, receiving a defiant stare from the Ichibi. She let out a small sigh as she stomped her way over to the fragile glass throne. "Fine then!" she exclaimed harshly before she kicked his shin.

What followed was possibly the funniest thing Temari had seen in a while, as Shukaku's face morphed into an expression of unmatched horror and betrayal. The sand demon tried futilely to grab onto anything to stop his fall, but gravity was a far more powerful force of nature than any of the Bijuu had ever been associated with.

Shukaku felt the world slow down to the speed of a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter; he watched in panic as the ceiling gradually began to get further and further away. He gave Temari a look of complete perfidy when he saw her smiling cheerfully at his misfortune and swore to get revenge by any means necessary, on both her and the Hokage bitch that had placed him that Kami forsaken throne.

"FUCK!" Shukaku yelped loudly as he landed on the 'incredibly comfortable' bed of shattered glass.

"Hah! You scream like a bitch!" Tsunade yelled happily before bursting into hysterical laughter.

Temari tried to maintain a her slightly irked disposition, but seeing Shukaku roll around on the ground, covered in pieces of broken glass, was beyond her ability. It didn't take long for Temari to join Tsunade in hysterical laughter while Shukaku threw a small tantrum about evil blonde women as he pulled out the pieces of glass that were still embedded in his back.

"Ok Temari, whatever the hell you wanted to talk about had better be important. If I don't deem it as important enough…well let's just say that I will exercise my rights as your master and make you do something so embarrassing that you'll die" Shukaku grumbled angrily.

"Yeah right, cause you would definitely make your slave do something that embarrassing" Temari said sarcastically.

"Is that a challenge?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Temari grunted and rolled her eyes at him. "Just get up, I really do need to talk to you" she said.

"Wow, look who's being all bossy now. You know, if your into being the dominate one, I'm sure I could be convinced to go along with it" Shukaku said with a lecherous gleam in his yellow eyes.

"Right, I forgot, you're still drunk," the blonde kunoichi muttered to herself.

"I most certainly am not drunk!" the sand demon exclaimed loudly. "A refined gentleman such as myself does not allow himself to become intoxicated in the presence of mere peasants," he said pompously.

Shukaku quickly tried to prove his point by jumping to his feet as quickly as he could, which he managed to do perfectly…right before falling flat on his face. This sent Tsunade into another fit of hysterics as Temari started to question whether or not this would be worth whatever answers she might end up getting.

"Do you need some help?" she asked bluntly.

"What? No, absolutely not, the master does not receive help from his slave!" Shukaku stated sternly.

"Actually, I'm quite certain that is exactly what a slave is for" said slave replied.

"Really? Wow, maybe I should actually read up on this kind of stuff"

"So do you need help?"

"No I'm alrig…actually, on second thoughts, yes; I might need some help here" he admitted quietly.

Temari sighed as she leant down and helped Shukaku to his feet. She was tempted to drop him as soon as he was upright, but decided against it; it wouldn't bode well if he actually did make her do something extremely embarrassing. She doubted that anything could be more embarrassing than that time he made her wear the bright pink dog collar, but she had that one coming.

"Ok, to the bedroom!" Shukaku yelled gleefully, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly.

This time, Temari did drop him.

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><p>Shukaku yelped quietly as Temari roughly pressed an icepack against his head. He may have been a Bijuu, but the combination of alcohol and being dropped on one's own head was painful no matter what you were. It definitely didn't help that there was a teenage girl glaring expectantly at him while he was trying to relax.<p>

"Fine, I'll talk. What do you want?" he asked lazily.

"I want to know the full story about how I became your slave," Temari said simply.

"Gaara said something didn't he?" Shukaku asked, her silence being all the answer he needed. "I am so going to kick his ass next time I see him, that traitorous little shit"

"Shukaku" Temari snapped impatiently.

"Ok, ok, keep your panties on…or take them off, I don't mind" Shukaku realised this was a bad choice of words as soon as a kunai magically materialised in Temari's hand, but what could he say, it was worth a try.

"Look, most of what I've already told you has been true to some extent, so I'll just recap everything and add in what I left out originally, sound fair?" he asked, receiving a nod from Temari. "Ok, well as I have said before, the seal that was used to seal me inside Gaara was pathetic; since it was placed on him while he was still within your mother, her chakra directly interfered with it" he began to explain.

"This in turn sealed a portion of your mother's soul into the seal along with myself. Trust me when I tell you that she was not the best roommate to have; I explicitly remember her kicking my ass to the point of humiliation. Anyway, we both soon realised that the seal was falling apart at an astounding rate, which I was beyond happy about since at the time all I wanted was to be free. And that's where the deal comes into play"

"Your mother pleaded and begged for me to reconsider, to spare Gaara's life. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, I actually stopped to consider what she had asked. She asked me to hold the seal together until a time where I could escape from the seal without killing Gaara, and I accepted; however, being sealed under a berserker seal left me with very minimal control over my own chakra, meaning I couldn't hold the seal together even if I wanted to"

"I assume this is where the Shinigami contract comes in to play?" Temari guessed. She was remaining perfectly calm on the outside, but inside she was practically screaming for Shukaku to hurry up, hoping to learn that she wasn't simply given to him by her mother for Gaara to live. She knew it was selfish, but emotions rarely ever weren't selfish.

"Yes, it was. I managed to summon him within the seal, and I requested that he give me the ability to maintain the seal. Unfortunately, the Shinigami is an asshole and almost always insists on a soul as payment for anything that he does; being a construct of pure chakra, I technically don't have a 'soul' so to speak, and your mother was already dead despite the fraction of her soul existing within the seal. Since the deal would be directly saving Gaara's life, he couldn't be used as payment either. That's when I suggested you and Kankuro"

"Karura threw a fit when I did that, I'm fairly certain that the Shinigami is still chuckling over the ass kicking he witnessed me get from her. Either way, the Shinigami accepted the offer, but he would only take you. Your mother was torn, she couldn't choose between the lives of her own children, and so I chose for her. I made a contract with the Shinigami, giving me the power to maintain Gaara's seal for as long as I needed, in exchange for your soul"

Shukaku paused to sigh tiredly and give Temari a few seconds to process everything. "The reason you are now my slave, instead of being sealed away inside the Shinigami, is because I made a sub contract that went along with the main one. Instead of you being sealed away for all eternity, you would instead be made my slave for all eternity, so long as you agreed to said terms and signed the contract that me and Gaara made you sign"

"Everything after that is pretty self-explanatory; I managed to hold the seal together for fourteen long ass years, I got released, Gaara didn't die, you became my slave, I think that covers everything" Shukaku finished with a deep sigh of relief. "Man that was a lot to get through"

"Wait a minute, you told me that your breaking out of the seal was not supposed to happen. Why did the seal fall apart before you wanted it to?" Temari asked in confusion.

"Oh, that. Well my ability to maintain the seal was based directly on Gaara's emotions, hence the reason I suppressed them so much; those were the terms that the Shinigami set. After that Naruto brat gave Gaara a personality check, it made our favourite redhead start undoing my handiwork. Being elected as Kazekage was the final straw, his newly found positive emotions put just enough strain on the already fragile seal to shatter it completely, releasing me prematurely" Shukaku answered lazily.

Temari sat silently for several minutes, thinking over everything and processing all of the information that had just been dropped on her. It was probably not something any ordinary person could easily cope with, but luckily Temari had spent the past several weeks with the most unordinary being in the world, so this wasn't as shocking as it was meant to be.

"So what you're saying, is that you had the choice of saving both me and Gaara, or killing Gaara and escaping; and despite everything, you chose to save us?" Temari asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out whether or not that was a mistake on my part" he muttered in reply.

"And you went out of your way to ensure that I wasn't taken by the Shinigami of your own free will?" she asked softly.

"Now that one I can assure you was definitely not a mistake. If I hadn't of done that then I never would have had that make out contest with you," he said with a perverted grin.

"I'm going to forget you said that" Temari said mostly to herself before standing up and walking over to Shukaku.

She calmly walked over to the Bijuu with a blank expression, grabbing his arm and forcefully pulling him to his feet. Shukaku prepared for the worst, which could have been anything from a kick to the balls, or a general ass kicking; he would never admit it out loud, but Temari scared him more than Karura ever did, and that woman was born from a nightmare as far as he was concerned.

What happened next shocked Shukaku more than when he woke up in Temari's bed for the first time. Temari, while still wearing an unreadable expression, leaned forward and embraced him in a rather strong hug. Shukaku's response came in the form of standing completely still like some awkwardly retarded tree.

"Uh, Temari…what the hell are you doing?" he asked as calmly as he could.

"I'm hugging you, you idiot. It's a way of saying thanks, for everything," she answered softly, burying her face into his chest soon after.

"I swear to Kami, if you cry on me…," he said dangerously, letting the threat hang in the air.

"Just shut up and hug me back," she ordered, although it took some effort to understand her since her words were muffled by Shukaku's chest.

Deciding not to argue with a potentially dangerous girl, Shukaku gently returned the embrace, resting his chin lightly on top of her head. They remained like that for a while, during which Shukaku managed to remember that Temari still thought he was drunk. A mischievous smirk formed on his face as his eyes glimmered lecherously.

"Hey, were your boobs always this big?" he asked innocently.

Temari instantly ended the hug and pushed Shukaku away harshly. "Ugh, you ruined the mood" she groaned irritably.

"So I take it you won't let me share the bed with you tonight huh?" he asked sadly.

The blonde kunoichi's answer was her pointing at the lounge with a glare aimed at Shukaku.

"Ok, I deserve that one. Anyway, I'm gunna go to sleep, and I suggest you do too; wouldn't want you to forget anything I just spent however long explaining, 'cause I sure as hell ain't explaining it again…while you're dressed that is" he said with a distant expression, a perverted giggle escaping his lips.

Shukaku fell to his knees as Temari delivered a powerful punch to his most vulnerable of places before stomping off to the bedroom and slamming the door.

"That still counts as touching it!" he yelled, before he quickly lost consciousness.

Temari heard that final remark, and couldn't help but smile warmly at the Bijuu's antics. Sure, she was a slave, and sure, her master was an immortal pervert; but at least he was kind and fun to be around. Temari quickly lied down on the large bed that could have easily fit both her and Shukaku while still leaving a good distance between them.

She couldn't stop the tears that flowed freely from her eyes, but she continued to smile happily. Temari was just relieved to know that her mother hadn't given her away, and she regretted ever questioning it in the first place. It didn't take long for exhaustion to catch up to her though and she quickly fell asleep. The last thing she thought of was how pissed Shukaku was going to be once he found out what she had planned for him tomorrow.

Let it not need be said that Temari was a cold hearted bitch when she needed to be.

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><p><strong>Please don't forget to leave a review.<strong>


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:**

Hey guys, here's the new chapter. First things first, I am once again sorry if this chapter is not as good as any of my previous ones; i am basically running out of idea's for this story, and although i do have some left i am finding it difficult to make an actual chapter based on those simple idea's. That being said, i will probably not be updating this story all too often now as i will instead be focusing on my other fanfic. I'm sorry if you happen to be one of the few that actually enjoy this fic, but i simply don't know where i'm going with it. I will still try to write out a new chapter whenever inspiration strikes, so i could still end up finishing this, but we will just have to wait and see.

Please leave a review of what you thought and any suggestions are appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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><p>Temari took a deep relaxing breath as she woke up. <em>'I haven't slept that well in a while' <em>she thought happily, as she once again wrapped her arms around the body next to her, burying her face into its warmth. '_Wait a second' _she looked up slowly and came face to face with a peacefully sleeping Shukaku, whose arms were wrapped gently around her.

_'He is so dead' _she vowed mentally.

She wanted to be angry, furious even, but after a few silent minutes of watching him sleep, she just couldn't force herself to me mad at him. He was simply too innocent, at least while he was asleep that is. Temari wasn't stupid enough to think that she wouldn't get mad even if he was awake, because she knew that he would make some perverted comment and she would be required to punch him for it.

While he was asleep, however, he was perfectly fine. So long as he remained unconscious, Temari wouldn't move, because she actually quite enjoyed the embrace that they were in; she would never admit it in a million years, but it was true none the less. Unfortunately, Shukaku had broken a sacred rule, and for doing so, he had to answer for his crimes. Just because Temari enjoyed cuddling with him, didn't mean that she was going to let that slide.

So with a wicked grin and evil gleam in her eyes, she carefully unwrapped Shukaku's arms from around her and went to work on preparing his punishment. Today was most likely going to be one of the worst days of his life if everything went according to plan. Temari smirked as she remembered what she and Tenten had already arranged for the Bijuu; chances were, it would actually push Shukaku off the edge and get her in trouble, but it would be so worth it. With that thought, Temari cheerfully made her way to the kitchen, quietly humming a tune as she went.

A short while later found Shukaku waking up groggily as the pleasant smell of food assaulted his nose. He assumed that it was from Temari making breakfast, which meant that there wouldn't be any for him since she had obviously woken up to him in the bed with her. Letting out a deep sigh, Shukaku tried to roll over and go back to sleep, key word being tried. For some reason, something was stopping him.

He opened his eyes lazily, glancing up at Temari who was, for some unexplainable reason, straddling his waist. She had an almost evil smile on her face, which actually looked kinda creepy with her hair let down like it was; but Shukaku wasn't bothered by that, there wasn't much she could do to him that he wouldn't let her do anyway. No, what bothered him was the large plate in her hand, on which lied a perfect stack of mouth-wateringly delicious looking pancakes, smothered in maple syrup.

Shukaku had met true evil a few times in his long life; he had even earned the title himself. But this girl, this ordinary, admittedly attractive mortal, had officially surpassed the queen bitch of evil herself, and all the while straddling him. He was impressed. Shukaku never thought Temari could stoop so low, and yet here he was, actually at her mercy.

"What are you doing?" he asked shakily, his yellow eyes glancing back and forth between her and the pancakes.

Her smile morphed into a vicious grin, her teal eyes glowing with glee. "I'm so glad you asked, but first, I need to ask you a question. Why was it that I woke up to find you in bed with me, despite the fact that I told you to sleep on the lounge?" she asked sweetly.

"Well, you see, I actually have a good reason for this" Shukaku replied quickly.

"And what would that be?" Temari asked in that detestable sickeningly sweet voice.

"Ok, so here's my reason" he began, taking a deep breath before grinning perversely. "If it ends with me waking up to a hot girl straddling me while holding a plate of pancakes, then I'm gunna sleep in the bed regardless of what's said" he said, giving Temari an appraising up and down glance.

Temari blushed slightly, something that she hated herself for, and smirked. "And you think I'm just going to let you get away with that?" she asked with that same sweet voice.

Shukaku's eye twitched slightly. He was starting to get irritated by that voice, and not because it was annoying him, or even because it literally informed him of incoming horror; no, Shukaku hated that voice because he thought it was cute. That evil smirk, the murderous gleam in her eyes, and then the sickeningly sweet voice that promised nothing but agony; it all added up to make her the most evil thing Shukaku knew of. And he thought it was hot.

There was only one problem with this in his current situation; he was confused. He didn't know what to do, or even what Temari was doing. The way she was acting seemed a little out of character since it was only yesterday that she had finally forgiven him for the whole slavery thing; as far as he was concerned, it wasn't normal. But he was still at her mercy, so he was going to go along with whatever her scheme was and hope that he could turn it in his favour.

"Well I'm letting you get away with stealing and wearing my shirt" he replied casually.

That was another thing that made the whole situation more difficult for Shukaku; she was wearing his shirt, which was much too large for her as it nearly reached her mid-thigh. What's more is that it seemed to be the only substantial piece of clothing on her. Shukaku knew that she was wearing underwear since she would have already killed him if he had slept in the same bed as her when she was naked, but that didn't matter much when the only thing covering the rest of her was just a shirt.

Shukaku's eyes widened slightly in fear when Temari's smirk turned into more of a perverted grin. Whatever she was about to do was going to either going to hurt, a lot, or it was going to prove without a doubt that this was some kind of cruel prank. He watched fearfully as she gently placed the plate of pancakes on the bedside table and slowly raised her arm up above her head, all the while still grinning perversely.

"If you don't want me wearing it, you're just going to have to take it off me," she said suggestively with a wink.

_'You cruel, cold hearted bitch!' _Shukaku screamed internally. "This is a joke isn't it? You're just gunna wait until I try and kick the shit out of me, aren't you?" he asked with a hint of sadness.

Temari shook her head. "Nope, you get this one free pass. But it's only valid if you really don't want me wearing your shirt, which by the way is really comfortable to sleep in" she said, returning once again to that sickeningly sweet voice.

_'This is definitely a trap' _Shukaku's conscience stated firmly, and he was inclined to agree with it. _'Yes, it's a trap. But if we move fast enough, we can still get a good show out of the ass kicking we are gunna get anyway' _his insanity countered. The Bijuu was in conflict now; his conscience made a very valid point, but his insanity was making logical sense that he simply couldn't argue with.

Shukaku stared at Temari with wide eyes, waiting for a sign of some sort to indicate that she wasn't being serious; all he managed to pick up was the expectant look she was sending him. He went to rub his eyes, to make sure that this wasn't some hallucination, but as soon as he tried to move his hands, he realised something was wrong, dangerously wrong.

Temari let her arms fall back to her sides as she pouted cutely. "Damn, you weren't even reaching for me when you realised" she whined sadly.

"Temari, I'm going to ask you this very calmly and I expect an answer," Shukaku said emotionlessly. "Why are my hands tied to the bed?" he asked seriously.

"Well, I had to keep you from actually taking the shirt off; and don't even try to say that you wouldn't have either, I know you would have jumped at the chance. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't jump at it like I expected. What were you even reaching for?" she asked curiously.

"I was trying to rub my eyes. I thought this was some hallucination or something that I was just seeing," he answered.

"Oh, that kinda makes sense" Temari said casually. "I am rather dreamy aren't I," she added with another wink.

"I won't deny it" Shukaku replied simply. "But back to why my hands are tied to the bed, and more importantly, why you're still sitting on me" he said as calmly as he could.

"How is that the more important thing?" she asked curiously. Temari would have thought that his hands being tied up would be the most important thing at this point.

"Because I can get out of these ropes whenever I want, so they don't really matter too much. You on the other hand, are half naked, and still straddling me; I just can't figure out why, and I can't just throw you off either," he explained casually.

Temari crossed her arms under her bust and glared at him. "Are you saying that you _don't _want me to stay like this?" she asked dangerously.

Shukaku furrowed his brow and stared questioningly at Temari. "I'm really confused now," he said.

"How could you possibly be confused? It's a simple question," she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I'm confused because I woke up to you straddling me, holding a plate of pancakes; then you asked me to take the shirt off, which you can keep by the way, and if that wasn't bad enough, I also realised that my hands are tied to the bed that we are on. What do you think that sounds like?" he asked.

Temari grinned. "It sounds like some really weird kind of roleplaying," she said with a small giggle. "But don't worry, its gunna get so much better…for me that is" she added cheerfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shukaku asked with a light glare.

"Well here's the thing, master. You invaded my privacy and slept here with me without my say so, and for that, you must pay. So I've prepared something very special," Temari said happily, making sure to call him master simply because he didn't like it. "This 'hot girl' as you so elegantly called me, is going to sit right here, on you, for a little while longer. I'm going to eat that plate of delicious pancakes that I cooked for this exact reason, right in front of you, and you aren't going to do anything for the entire time" she explained to him as if he were a child.

Shukaku gasped, his eyes widened in complete and utter distress. "You…you wouldn't really do that, would you?" he stuttered fearfully.

Temari grinned like a Cheshire cat, revelling in the torment that Shukaku was soon to suffer. "Oh I would, and I intend to. From the way you were looking at those pancakes just before, I'd say that this is going to hurt" she said cheerfully.

"Ok, ok, what do you want?" Shukaku asked pleadingly. Surely there was _something _that would make her stop.

"Hmm, I don't really want anything, other than to see you suffer of course," she muttered thoughtfully. "But I'll tell you what. Why don't we make a deal out of this?" she suggested excitedly.

Shukaku quirked an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?" he asked hesitantly.

"Well, I'll give you the pancakes, but only if you promise to do what I say for today" Temari explained casually.

"That's it? Nothing else, just do what you say for a day?" he asked in disbelief.

"Nope, nothing else, just do what I say for today. If you agree I'll give you the pancakes, and from tonight onwards I'll even let you sleep in the bed with me," she said with a smile before quickly narrowing her eyes. "To sleep only. I won't put up with you being pervert while I try to sleep," she explained.

"And what brought about this idea? Why would you give up your privacy, which you seem rather attached to, for a simple day of control?" Shukaku asked curiously.

Temari sighed and gained a downtrodden expression. "I realised yesterday that as a slave I very few rights, and I lost any form of authority that I possessed before I signed that contract. I just want to feel like I'm in control of my life again, even if it's only for a day. And if all I have to do to get that is share a bed with you, then I'll deal with it" she said softly.

"Alright, I agree" Shukaku said in a defeated tone. He really didn't want to see Temari upset, it would only end up making him feel guilty. _'What's the worst she could make me do?' _he thought.

Temari smiled at him. "Thank you" she said softly. _'Ha, poor bastard doesn't even know he's being played. If I knew manipulating him was so easy, I would have done it sooner. Just sit on his lap, be a little suggestive, and finish with a guilt trip. Like putty in my hands' _she mentally cheered, cackling madly at her success.

Everything was going exactly to plan, and Shukaku had no clue as to what he had just signed himself up for. Temari felt a small twinge of guilt at manipulating Shukaku like this; she didn't realise he would be so quick to try and make her happy for a day, and she did think it was really sweet of him to do so, but she ignored it. Today was going to be her day for victory, her day of triumph, the day that she finally made Shukaku suffer for making her wear that Kami forsaken dog collar.

If the guilt was still bugging her by the end of the day then she would simply find some way to apologise and make up for it. For now though, she needed to get him to the training grounds. She and Tenten had planned too far ahead to simply drop it.

"Ok then, free yourself and come to the kitchen, I don't want any food on the bed" she said happily, as she went to get off of Shukaku.

"Yes master" Shukaku said jokingly, turning his hands to sand and freeing himself.

_'Master huh? I think that title sounds good on me' _she thought casually as she walked out of the room, followed closely by Shukaku holding the plate of pancakes.

As soon as they were out of the room, a tall man with gravity defying silver hair and his forehead protector pulled down over his left eye crawled out of a hidden space in the ceiling. He giggled quietly as he scribbled something down on a small notepad, casually making his way to the bedrooms window.

_'Lord Jiraiya is going to love this. I'm so glad he accepted my offer to do extra research for him' _the man thought, giggling like a schoolgirl the whole time.

He honestly couldn't believe his luck. First, the council assigned him to spy on the Ichibi and its servant, whom he learnt was the Kazekage's sister, and then he gets a front row seat to some research worthy fun. He just knew that this would make for a great story plot. _'The slave falling for her master' _he thought.

Yep, today was a great day in Kakashi Hatake's book.

* * *

><p>"GOODMORNING MY MOST YOUTHFUL ALLIES!" a boy yelled enthusiastically, grinning widely and giving a thumbs up.<p>

"Hi Lee, how are you going?" Temari asked casually, waving to the boy.

"I AM GOING WELL TEMARI-SAN, THANK YOU FOR ASKING" Lee replied happily.

"That's alright Lee, but could you please stop yelling?" she asked politely.

"Oh, I am so sorry, please forgive me. If you don't, I will run around Konoha forty times!" he exclaimed loudly.

_'Well, he isn't yelling anymore. I suppose that's a good thing' _Temari thought to herself.

"Dammit Lee, stop being an idiot!" Tenten exclaimed angrily, appearing out of nowhere. "Hey Temari" she said cheerfully, waving to her friend.

"Hi Tenten" the blonde replied kindly.

"So" the bun haired girl began with a grin. "Is everything ready to go as planned?" she asked.

Temari grinned as well and nodded her head. "Yep, everything is going to plan" she answered.

"Hey, wait up, what's going to plan?" Shukaku asked curiously.

"Nothing you need to worry about. I do have a question for you though," Temari said casually.

"And that would be?"

Shukaku didn't feel too comfortable with the smile that found its way onto Temari's face, but he wasn't going to say anything, not when she had the power to tell him what to do. He was going to try to be on his best behaviour for today, if only so as to not incur Temari's wrath. He also found that he wasn't too comfortable with the grin the bun haired girl was giving him either, though hers seemed to be a bit more on the perverse side of things.

"I feel like I should know you, but I don't know why" he stated bluntly to Tenten.

"I'm the one that threw a kunai into your face when we first met, that was only yesterday," the weapons mistress said calmly. "I'm also supposed to marry Kankuro"

"Oh yeah, crazy knife girl, how've you been"

Tenten giggled lightly at the nickname. He had no idea how accurate it was, but she would make sure that he found out eventually. "I'm fine, how about you Shukaku?" she asked.

"Can't complain, but Temari keeps interrogating me," he answered with a shrug.

"Oh really?" Tenten replied with a curious gleam in her dark brown eyes, receiving a warning look from Temari that was quickly ignored. "What kind of interrogating?" she asked innocently.

"Just the standard stuff. First, she dragged me from a bar and made me answer some questions when she thought I was drunk; and then I woke up this morning to the wonderful smell of pancakes, held by her as she straddled my lap, with my hands tied to the bed" Shukaku listed off casually. "Her second attempt was my favourite"

Tenten stared at a blushing red Temari in shock and surprise. "Wow Temari, I never thought you would be so…uh, forward, with your master," she said with a laugh.

Temari glared at the girl. It wasn't a normal glare either; no, this was the kind that promised great pain and anguish should the receiver of said glare continue in doing whatever it was that made them a target in the first place.

"YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY IN YOUR THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE TEMARI-SAN!" Lee yelled joyously before giving the blonde a disapproving look. "However, I don't believe that your methods were very youthful" he said more seriously.

"I concur with caterpillar brow here. Your methods were very un-youthful," Shukaku said sternly, a perverted grin stretching across his face immediately after. "They were much closer to an adult rating," he added with a chuckle.

Temari turned her glare to him. "You don't get to speak right now. And we are gunna have a little chat about you pretending to be drunk later on" she growled out before turning back to Tenten. "Not a word from you either" she warned.

"Fine" Tenten drawled. "And for the record Shukaku, Naruto already dubbed Lee as bushy brow, so you can't call him caterpillar brow. It just sounds wrong anyway," she said.

"Ok, I can live with that. But why the hell are we here?" he asked calmly.

Temari smirked. "We are here for a spar. A nice friendly fight between the four of us, and the best part, is that it's us three against you," she told him cheerfully.

"That is so ridiculously unfair it's not even funny," Shukaku grumbled. "You need at least five more people on your side to even stand a chance," he continued arrogantly.

"YOSH! YOU ARE MOST YOUTHFUL SHUKAKU-SAN!" Lee yelled loudly. "IF I CAN NOT OFFER YOU A CHALLENGING FIGHT, I WILL USE HEAVIER WEIGHTS AND TRAIN UNTIL I CAN NOT EVEN STAND!"

"You have some screws loose don't you?" Shukaku asked earning a giggle from Tenten.

"Remember our deal Shukaku" Temari said sweetly. "You have to do anything I say for all of today, and I'm telling you to have a spar with us. But I know how powerful you are, so you will be restricted to only using taijutsu" she said in a commanding tone.

Shukaku hummed thoughtfully. "Nope, won't change anything. I'll still kick all of your asses," he said confidently.

"Someone's a little cocky," Tenten said with a smile, idly twirling a kunai around her fingers. "But I could be proven wrong with what Temari insinuated yesterday at the hot springs" she added with a thoughtful expression.

Temari blushed in embarrassment as she once again glared at Tenten. "You traitorous bitch!" she whispered harshly.

"Is that so?" Shukaku asked with a raised eyebrow. "And what exactly was Temari insinuating about me?"

"I think her exact words were 'and he isn't all that little either', or something along those lines" Tenten recounted, happily ignoring Temari's attempt to set her ablaze with but a stare.

"Well, she's not wrong. There is a reason why my human form still holds the title of the one tailed beast," Shukaku stated casually, shrugging modestly as he finished.

Tenten, Temari, and oddly enough Lee, all stared at the Bijuu with wide curious eyes. "Are you serious?" they all asked in unison.

Shukaku chuckled at them. "I thought you were the one who knew, Temari. Or weren't you able to get a good enough feel while we were cuddling?" he asked jokingly, making the poor girl blush even more furiously. "And no, I'm not serious. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it would be to run around if I actually earned the title of one tailed beast in my human form? It's also the stupidest nickname you could use to describe _that,_" he answered.

"But enough about unimportant things. I believe you all wanted fight," he said calmly, dropping into a relaxed taijutsu stance.

"YOSH! I LOOK FORWARD TO PROVING MYSELF AGAINST SUCH A POWERFUL OPONENT!" Lee yelled excitedly as he too dropped into a taijutsu stance.

Tenten smiled as she pulled out two small sealing scrolls from one of the two pouches strapped to her waist. Temari had a smile just like Tenten's, but for some reason Shukaku could feel a sort of murderous vibe hidden beneath it. He watched as Temari also pulled out a small sealing scroll, opening it casually and unsealing a large battle fan from within it.

"You brought that thing with you, and you actually intend to use it, here?" Shukaku asked in surprise.

Temari grinned viciously and nodded. "Absolutely! I have another chance to kick your ass and I'm going to use whatever I can to do so," she explained happily.

Shukaku sighed. Temari must have forgotten, again, about the fact that her celestial gates were open now, and if she amplified a wind jutsu with that fan, with her chakra being as strong as it was now…well there wouldn't be very many trees in this training afterwards. He also worried slightly for the other two in the fight, since he wasn't sure if they could survive if they accidentally got caught in one of the girl's jutsu.

_'Oh well. It's too late to argue now' _he thought as he focused back onto the fight to come. He just hoped that he could actually back up his claim of beating them all using only taijutsu; he hadn't been forced into a taijutsu fight for a few hundred years and he was probably quite rusty in the art by now.

Without warning, Lee vanished from sight in an explosion of speed. Shukaku was surprised by the boy's speed and his eyes widened when he was forced to block a high kick from him with his forearm; this turned out to be a major mistake as the offending limb shattered his arm instantly, reducing it back to sand, before continuing through and into his face.

Shukaku was sent flying into a tree almost thirty feet away. He coughed and sputtered as he stumbled back to his feet, his arm already having reformed. _'Hold the fuck up. Isn't this that kid that Gaara fought in his first chunin exams; there is no fucking way that he can kick that hard. Even the Hokage didn't cause that much damage' _he shouted mentally.

"What's the matter Shukaku, I thought you were going to kick our asses," Temari said with a smug look.

Shukaku growled and said the first and only thing he could think of. "I want that kid tested for steroids!" he screamed.

He was instantly bombarded with an insane amount of bladed projectiles courtesy of a cackling Tenten, some of which came a little too close to certain areas. _'They are all going to die for this' _he growled mentally as he pulled a kunai from his quickly reforming eye.

If only he knew the true extent of chaos that Temari and Tenten had ready to unleash.


End file.
